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[[image - black and white headshot photograph of Dorothy Height]]
[[caption]] Dorothy Height, among her numerous credits is President of the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. [[/caption]]

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF NEGRO WOMEN
  
With 25 national affiliates and a total membership of 3,850,000 women (and some men, too!), the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. is undoubtedly one of the largest organizations in the nation.
  
Founded in 1935 by Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, friend and confidante of President and Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Council is presently headed by Miss Dorothy I. Height of New York City. Director for Region 1 (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) is Mrs. Marc Hughes Fisher.
  
The Council's four major program goals:

• To recruit, stimulate and train Negro women for more effective participation in community services and community leadership;

• To develop independent and cooperative projects for service to the community;

• To work for the enforcement of laws, and for administrative and legal action to protect civil rights and to combat poverty; 

• To broaden the base of involvement of women of different backgrounds to achieve these goals.
  
Along with the National Council of Catholic Women, the National Council of Jewish Women and United Church Women, the National Council of Negro Women incorporated in 1964 an organization call WICS (Women in Community Service), to frame and carry out effective volunteer service programs against poverty throughout the nation.
  
The Council also helped create WIM (Wednesday in Mississippi), interracial teams of women from 36 communities in 11 states who meet regularly with women from 9 Mississippi communities to help build better understanding.
  
The Council is further involved in:
  
A voter information service, with radio station WMCA, in which 157 volunteers manned a bank of phones, handling 15,000 calls from 6 states;
  
The National Committee on Household Employment, in which it is helping in the efforts to upgrade occupations in home-related services;
  
Scholarships to enable 72 young people whose studies were interrupted by their civil rights activities, to return to college. 
  
Last year the Council received Ford Foundation funds ($300,000 over a 2-year period), designated to enlist and train 6,000 women volunteers and to establish a vanguard of 90 Negro women equipped to prepare other women for community service. Volunteers will be given the know-how to work on a variety of community-action programs in: child welfare, public health, consumer fraud, crime and delinquency, illegitimacy, birth control, housing and the strengthening of family life.
  
National headquarters of the Council: 1346 Connecticut Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20036. Field office, Region 1: 145 East 52nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10022.

[[image - black & white photograph of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune]]

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