Williams, Samuel J. Gems of Rarest Rays Serene . .

Detroit, Mich: Harlo Press, 1966. Very good -. 8½” x 5 3/8”. Thin card wrappers. Pp. 127. Very good minus: wrappers split at head and foot of spine, lightly soiled and spotted; a few small stains to edges of prelims and one other page; inked former owner's note to half title.

This is a rare history of the women's auxiliary of a major African American religious organization, the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBC). Written by a Black preacher from Detroit and enhanced by photographic images, the work chronicles and lauds the origins and achievements of the auxiliary, its first three presidents and other Black female leaders.

Three Black Baptist conventions merged to form the NBC in Atlanta in 1895; with a membership now in the millions, it is the largest African American religious group in the country. The Baptist Women's Convention (BWC) auxiliary of NBC was organized in 1900 by 38 women from around the country; their motto was “Woman Arise: He Calleth for Thee.” A brief foreword to this work indicates that it contains “Interesting insights into the personalities and contributions of the three great women whom God gave to lead” the BWC in its first 65 years.

Part One was devoted to suffragist and civil rights activist Sarah Willie Layten (sometimes seen elsewhere as Layton). Before serving as first BWC president, a role she held for 48 years, Layten had helped found the California, Philadelphia and New York Federations of Colored Women's Clubs. She was a social worker and an editor of The Woman's Era, the first national newspaper published by and for Black women in the United States. Under her guidance BWC became a leading voice for women's suffrage, assisted Black women during the Great Migration and with war efforts during World War I.

Part Two covered Dr. Nannie Helen Burroughs, second president from 1948 to 1961, who had served as BWC secretary since 1900. In 1909 she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls, later renamed in her honor, thought to be the first school in the nation to provide vocational training for African American females.

Part Four of this work was titled “Measuring Progress: Highlights of Sixty-Five Years. It ran lists and bios of BWC's first officers (and several later ones); projects such as “Social Settlement Work,” publishing houses, a youth camp and “Freedom Farm”; profiles of countless important women leaders and organizations with which BWC was known to “cooperate and affiliate . . . to promote justice, equality, fraternity, peace and good-will.” A few pages were devoted to BWC “pageants, periodicals and pamphlets,” and there is an incredibly detailed history of Burroughs' Training School.

This copy additionally has a charming former owner's note: “Mrs. Annie Brown's book. Bought while attending National B. Convention in Dallas Texas in Sept. 1966.” Annie Brown was active with the NBC from at least the 1950s to the '70s, serving as president of the women's auxiliary of her district association in Detroit.

An exhaustive exposition of the women's branch of the largest Black religious group in the country and its earliest important leaders. OCLC shows three holdings. (Inventory #: 8662)