St. Paul Recorder

Page 4 St. Paul Recorder

44's Outstanding Women Named By Mrs. Bethune

WASHINGTON, D. C. (NNPA) — Mrs. Mary McLeod Bethune, who herself has been named innumerable times on rosters of the outstanding women of America, has selected a list of 16 women as the outstanding contributors to interracial unity during the year 1944.

Her selections were made, she said in a press conference this week, because she was perturbed by the absolute neglect of women in the polls of newspapers and periodicals, both white and colored.

She declared that the National Council of Negro Women, of which she is president, is in better position than the average person or organization to make such selections because of the concentration of its efforts on the services and activities of women.

Her list includes: Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt as the Woman of the Year, for her "varied activities in the field of human relations, her courage, her energy, and her deep concern for national and international unity which have given inspiration to women all over the world."

Mrs. Anna Arnold Hedgeman, executive secretary of the National Council for a Permanent FEPC, for her dynamic leadership in the struggle to secure passage of the bill for a permanent Fair Employment Practice Commission with enforcement powers.

Y. W. President Mrs. Mary S. Ingraham, president of the National Board of the Young Women's Christian Associations of the United States, for her courageous leadership in the development of sound interracial practice within the YWCA.

Mrs. Mabel K. Staupers, executive secretary of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses, for her persistent efforts to secure the full utilization of the services of the Negro nurse in the Armed Forces.

Mrs. Alice T. McLean, founder-president of the American Women's Voluntary Services, for her contribution to the morale of the men and women in the Armed Forces through her visits to the war theaters and the expansion on a national basis of the exceedingly effective program of the AWVS.

Mrs. Daisy Lampkin, field secretary of the NAACP, for her part in building in 1944 the largest membership enrollment in the history of the NAACP, and for her effective fight for equality of opportunity for all minorities.

Mrs. Katherine Shryver, executive secretary of the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax, for her statesmanlike leadership in the legislative and educational campaign to abolish the poll tax.

Columnist Named Mrs. Dorothy Thompson, columnist, for her brilliant analysis and presentation of major issues in the political campaign of 1944.

Mrs. Lavonia H. Brown, founder-Lt. General of the Women's Army for National Defense (WANDS), for her creative leadership in developing the program of the WANDS.

Miss Lillian Smith, editor of "South Today," for her fearless presentation of the effects on human behavior of the mores of the South through the authorship of "Strange Fruit."

Newspaper Woman Honored Mrs. Bettye Murphy Phillips, newspaperwoman, for qualifying for certification by the War Department as the first Negro woman war correspondent.

Miss Lena Horne, singer and motion picture star, for her resolute stand on refusing to appear on radio, screen or stage in stereotyped Negro roles.

Mrs. Dorothy J. Bellanca, international vice president of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (CIO), for her effective assistance in the mobilization of women industrial workers for citizenship responsibility with emphasis on registration and participation in local and national elections in 1944.

Friday, January 12, 1945

Mrs. Thomasina W. Johnson, legislative representative of the National Non-Partisan Council on Public Affairs of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, for her successful efforts towards the inclusion and integration of Negro women in the WAVES.

Woman Urban League Secretary Mrs. Pauline Redmond Coggs, executive secretary of the Washington Urban League, for her forthright fight for housing facilities for Negroes and racial tolerance in the District of Columbia.

Mrs. Jeanetta Welch Brown, executive secretary of the National Council of Negro Women, for initiating a coordinating committee composed of Labor, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish national women's organizations for the elimination of race hatred and segregation; and for developing the program for the launching of the first liberty ship named in honor of a Negro woman, the S. S. Harriet Tubman, now an active cargo vessel of war.

Mrs. Bethune emphasized that this list is a symbol of the accomplishments of women throughout the nation in the war year 1944.

She paid tribute to the women leaders of great religious movements, to the women in industrial plants, to the women in the armed forces, and to the women who carry increased burdens as wives, daughters and mothers all over the nation.

The National Council of Negro Women, she said, urges local communities to aid in finding those "brave loyal women behind the scenes who quietly and unassumingly have earned recognition."