D.C. Mondays: Nannie Helen Burroughs

Nannie Helen Burroughs changed Washington as an educator and leader of a powerful labor movement. In 1909 she established the National Training School for Women and Girls in D.C. to transform working and living conditions for Black women and girls in Jane Crow America. Burroughs also established an unprecedented periodical, labor organization, stage play and White House study of disparities in housing, health and labor — groundbreaking work that offers lessons for organizers, educators and public historians today. Join Rutgers University Professor Danielle Phillips-Cunningham as she discusses her new book Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World (Georgetown University Press, 2025).  

About Danielle Phillips-Cunningham

Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University–New Brunswick. She is the recipient of the National Women's Studies Association's Sara A. Whaley Book Prize for Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Southern Black Domestic Workers (Rutgers University Press, 2020). Her new book Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World (Georgetown University Press) released in February 2025.