From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)
Woman's Industrial Club of Louisville (KY)
The Woman's Industrial Club of Louisville was founded by Nannie Burroughs in 1900. It was described as a business, charitable, and industrial club housed in a building that the club rented in Louisville, KY. Attendance was initially free, then women who could afford it paid ten cents per week for the work, and Burroughs took care of the rest. They made pies and cakes to sell. In the afternoon and evenings, Burroughs instructed the women on professions such as millinery and taught domestic science. During the day, the organization made and sold lunches to African Americans who worked in downtown Louisville. On the advice of a white woman who came to her aid financially, Burroughs increased the weekly tuition, and each student paid something, even if it was a penny.There were 40 clubs in Louisville, and the city was to host the next biennial meeting of the National Association of Colored Women. The Woman's Industrial Club of Louisville continued to grow, and Burroughs was forced to hire teachers and let other club members manage the school while she supervised. The club eventually purchased a twenty-room building for the classes, and it also provided rooms for women who were moving to Louisville for work. The Woman's Industrial Club of Louisville and the school existed at least during the nine year period that Burroughs was in Louisville.
For more see Efforts for Social Betterment Among Negro Americans, A social study made by Atlanta University [available online at Google Books]; Fortress Introduction to Black Church History, by A. H. Pinn and A. B. Pinn; and In the Vanguard of a Race by L. H. Hammond [available online at Google Books and Inernet Archive].