The League of Women for Community Service (1918-present) focused its efforts on improving the lives of the Black community in Boston. The League began as a World War I effort in 1918. Black soldiers and sailors received hospitality, supplies, comfort, and cheer from the women, known as the Soldiers Comfort Unit. The League expanded to meet the varied needs of the Black community after the war, with social service programs including a lunch program for students attending the Dwight School (now the Hurley School). In the 1940s and 50s, African American women found lodging at the League when they were not welcome in their university dormitories. In addition, the organization recognized the community’s cultural and artistic needs, creating a space for concerts, exhibitions, and literary meetings.
The League of Women for Community Service continues to assist girls and women in Boston’s Black community through scholarships and programs like the “Glennon Program,” which provides mentorships and support to African American women in Post Graduate Academic Programs in the area. They also regularly support the community through charitable donations of food and supplies. In 1921, the League dedicated their library to their first president, Maria Louise Baldwin (1856–1922). Baldwin was the first African American woman headmaster in New England, serving over thirty years as head of the Agassiz School in Cambridge, which was renamed the Baldwin School in her honor in 2002. Other notable presidents included Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842–1924), founder of the Women’s Era Club and publisher of the Women’s Era newspaper, and her daughter, Florida Ruffin Ridley (1861–1943), the second African American teacher in the Boston Public Schools.
Wilhelmina Crosson (1900–91), another pioneering African American educator, became the second president of Palmer Memorial Institute, and Gladys Holmes (1892–1969), a Radcliffe graduate, was an author, educator, and social worker. Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) lived at the League’s building while studying at the New England Conservatory of Music. The building, owned by sea captain and anti-slavery activist James Farwell, is believed to have been a station on the Underground Railroad.
