Alleys and Slums of our Great Cities, the Founding of Homes for our Working Classes, and a Greater Interest in our Fallen and Wayward." During the next ten years, the NACWC became involved in campaigns in favor of women's suffrage and against lynching and Jim Crow laws. They also led efforts to improve education, and care for both children and the elderly. Membership grew from 5,000 members in 1897 to 100,000 by 1924 before a decline during the Great Depression. Notable leadership Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell made major contributions to the National Association of Colored Women. Their efforts led the NACWC to become the most prominent organization formed during the African-American Woman Suffrage Movement. Both women were educated and had economically successful parents. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin used part of her estate to fund Woman’s Era, the first journal published by and for African-American women. This publication established black women as a public audience and a community for both NACWC members and prospective members. Mary Church Terrell was a formidable organizer. She led the struggle in Washington, DC against segregation in restaurants and succeeded in winning a court decision for integration there. Officers Elected Inaugural Meeting Officers elected at the first meeting of the National Association of Colored Women, July 1896. President - Mrs. Mary Church Terrell First Vice President - Mrs. Fanny Jackson Coppin Second Vice President - Mrs. F. E. W. Harper Third Vice President - Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin Fourth Vice President - Mrs. Josephine Silone Yates Fifth Vice President - Mrs. Sylvanie Williams Sixth Vice President - Mrs. Jennie Chase Williams Seventh Vice President - Mrs. Lucy Thurman Recording Secretary - Mrs. Alice Ruth Moore Corresponding Secretary - Miss A. V. Thompkins Treasurer - Mrs. Helen Appo Cook Chairman of the Executive Committee - Mrs. Margaret Murray Washington National Organizer - Mrs. Victoria Earle Matthews Editorial Staff - Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Margaret Murray Washington, Dr. Rebecca Cole, Mrs. Rosa D. Bowser, Mrs. Ida Wells-Barnett, Mrs. Frances J. Jackson Ways and Means Committee - Mrs. J. Napier Kemp, Miss Lulu Chase, Mrs. Ella Mahammitt, Miss Julia F. Jones Committee to Draft Constitution - Mrs. A. V. Jones, Mrs. Anna Jones, Mrs. C. L. Franklin, Mrs. Rosa D. Bowser, and Mrs. Victoria Earle Matthews Other significant attendees - Mrs. John H. Smyth NACWC objectives To work for the economic, moral, religious and