#rosa gragg

[todaysdocument]

White House Meeting with civil rights leaders, June 22, 1963.

Collection JFK-WHP: White House Photographs

Series: Abbie Rowe White House Photographs

File Unit: White House Photograph Collection: Abbie Rowe White House Photographs: AR7993B

Image description: About 24 people standing outside the White House. Most of them are men in suits but there is one woman, who is wearing a summer hat. A few people have been identified: Front Row: Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Kennedy, Roy Wilkins, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Walter P. Reuther, Whitney M. Young, A. Philip Randolph. Second Row Second From Left: Rosa Gragg. Top Row Third From Left: James Farmer.

[jfklibraryfdn]

Founded in 1896, the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs merged multiple organizations, large and small, into one association whose common goals were to support racial and gender equality.⁣

The NACWC continued their work well into JFK’s administration, including advocating that Frederick Douglass’s home be made into a National Park. The organization’s president Dr. Rosa Gragg wrote to Ken O’Donnell, Special Assistant to the President in early 1962 with their request.

JFKWHSFHW-005-005-p0008 Letter from Dr. Rosa Gragg to Kenneth O’Donnell

In 1962, JFK signed a bill doing just that, and members of the club, including their president Dr. Rosa Gragg, were present at the singing.

AR7448-C. President John F. Kennedy Designates Frederick Douglass Home Part of National Park System

A month before that, they gifted President Kennedy a portrait of President Lincoln that hung in Douglass’ house. This would be the first time that a US president accepted a gift from a Black organization.⁣

ST-336-2-62. President John F. Kennedy with Members of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs

[jfklibraryfdn]

Dr. Rosa Gragg, president of National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, wrote to Ken O’Donnell, Special Assistant to the President in early 1962, urging JFK to make Frederick Douglass's home a National Park.

Later that year, in September, JFK signed a bill creating the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, with women from the NACWC in attendance. In this photo, he hands Dr. Gragg a pen used to sign the bill.

top: JFKWHSFHW-005-005-p0008

bottom: JFKWHP-AR7448-C

[detroitlib]

View of Alice [undecipherable], Beulah Whitby, Rosa L. Gragg and Marcella Tandy Peterson. Handwritten on back: "Gragg, Rosa L., second from right. 1., 2. Beulah Whitley, 3. Rosa Gragg, 4. Marcella Tandy Peterson."

Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library