On July 19, 1876, she married Robert South Barrett (1851–1896), a young Episcopal minister fresh out of seminary, who had been recently assigned to the nearby Aquia Church.

[1] In particular, soon after Robert South Barrett, Jr., the first of their six children, was born in Richmond, Virginia, a young unmarried woman with her own child begged for help at their door.

[8] Profoundly moved by her new-found bond with this "fallen" woman, she vowed, "By the power of God that rules the Universe, I would spend my life trying to wipe out some of the inequalities that were meted out to my sisters who were so helpless to help themselves.

Her husband's health, never robust, began failing, and they returned to the Alexandria area while he was assigned in Washington, D.C., and later traveled to Europe to seek cures.

After starting a "rescue home" on her own in Atlanta, despite being officially opposed by the local government, she joined forces with Charles Nelson Crittenton (1833–1909), a wealthy New Yorker also interested in creating safe havens for "fallen women.

Barrett successfully secured for the NFCM the first-ever federal charter for a charitable organization, through a special act of Congress signed by President William McKinley on April 9, 1898.

[18] Although the NFCM shifted its emphasis from prostitution to unmarried mothers, Barrett led forcefully when the anti-prostitution scare under the label of "white slavery" surfaced around 1910.

[21] For a woman born into a slave-holding family, Barrett put considerable effort into addressing the racial issues inherent in the work of the NFCM.

Noting Barrett's background and that her era corresponded with the institutionalization of Jim Crow throughout the South, historian Katherine G. Aiken concludes that "[w]ithin this context, the NFCM made pathbreaking overtures to the African American community.

The FC approach was neither revolutionary nor radical, and both white and black Crittenton workers failed to confront or challenge predominant views of race.

While unwed mothers were hardly restricted at the time to the working class, middle-class and wealthy women had access to resources that could shield them from censure.

Katherine Aiken thinks this characterization is too sweeping and that it misses the genuine caring that Florence Crittenton workers brought to their work, identifying as women and mothers with their sister "unfortunate girls".

Nevertheless, Crittenton homes served a purpose and filled a void that provided a real service to women enduring considerable personal turmoil.

With duties split in the same way that Charles Crittenton and she had functioned early on, her eldest son Robert South Barrett, Jr. (the little boy she had once mentally compared to the child of the unmarried mother at the door all those years ago) served as her successor as NFCM president, while daughter Reba Barrett Smith served as vice president and general superintendent.

[29] Katherine Barrett was a charter member and vice president of the League of Women Voters, and a motivating force behind the creation of the American Legion Auxiliary.

It had been owned by Elisha C. Dick, one of the physicians attending George Washington on his deathbed as well as a noted abolitionist and early mayor of Alexandria.

[1] Barrett was active in the preservation or improvement of several other local historic buildings and sites, including Arlington National Cemetery, and Custis-Lee Mansion, home of Robert E. Lee.

[31] Barrett served on the Board of Visitors of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and was the first woman to be made an honorary member of their Phi Beta Kappa chapter.

Florence Crittenton homes pioneered women-oriented policies in the areas of health care, employment for women, and children's rights.

Aiken notes that popular culture and historians have focused on female activists and social scientists "who tended to be single, career women.