Grand Body of the Sisters of Charity was founded by Celeste Allen, Eliza Goff, Ada Goins, Beulah Wright Porter and Hulda Bates Webb in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1874 in response to the large number of African Americans moving to central Indiana from the South after the American Civil War.
The charitable organization, which disbanded around 1980, worked to provide healthcare to new Indiana residents.
In the early 1910s the women raised funds to establish a small, fourteen-bed hospital for African Americans; however, it closed for financial reasons after ten years of operation.
[3][4] The Grand Body of the Sisters of Charity encouraged the development of other African American women's clubs in the city.
That building still stands at 1034-1036 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive in Indianapolis, Indiana.