of the facilities, Bowles was convinced that the structure would give women of both races the opportunity to work together. During World War I, the YWCA provided funds to further expand services in the black communities and open industrial work centers, as well as recreational facilities. They also opened fifteen canteens, facilities to provide entertainment for soldiers and their families. Bowles recruitment was so successful that she increased the black staff from one to over sixty and was awarded $4,000 with an accommodation for her work from former president Theodore Roosevelt from his Nobel Prize funds. Bowles continued to press the national board for more representation of black women at the local and national levels. In 1924, they gained the first representative on the national board and she was also successful in increasing the headquarter's black staff to nine members with three black field workers. She traveled the country opening YWCA branches and also pressed for the organization to expand their work in Africa and the Caribbean. In 1932, she resigned from the YWCA, having become disillusioned with their reorganization plans. Bowles had already been working for the National Colored Merchants Association, as association secretary, and the National Negro Business League, as chair of the women’s auxiliary. When she left the YWCA, she joined their joint offices as an employee to help improve the economic opportunities of blacks. In 1943, at the onset of World War II, Bowles was named Executive Director of Civilian Defense for the Harlem and Riverside areas of New York City. Death and legacy Bowles died June 14, 1943, at the Richmond Community Hospital in Richmond, Virginia, while on a visit to see her niece. The archives of the YWCA contain materials concerning Bowles work to expand the YWCA in the African American communities as well as her work during the First World War. References Citations Bibliography and 1875 births 1943 deaths People from Albany, Ohio African-American activists African-American educators American social workers American women educators YWCA American philanthropists 20th-century American Episcopalians Educators from Ohio 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women