"[5] They were also active in other local literary clubs, religious groups, and black organizations that held gatherings in Indianapolis, such as the Knights of Pythias, Afro-American Council, and Anti-Lynching League.
Their involvement with other civic groups, as well as the local black community's physicians, businessmen, and church leaders helped widen the clubwomen's contact base and obtain support for WIC projects.
They read the literature of African American writers, the poetry of Phyllis Wheatley, and learned about the lives of black missionaries, evangelists, inventors, and social and political leaders.
Du Bois, the author of The Souls of Black Folk and magazine editor for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; and anti-lynching crusader Ida B.
There were no facilities to care for black tuberculosis patients, even though the disease had a high mortality rate among African American living in urban areas.
[9][10] The clubwomen began by raising funds to send small groups of the city's at-risk black children to the country to regain their strength.
In the early twentieth century nurses' training programs in Indianapolis hospitals were segregated, forcing African American students to leave the area to gain similar experience.
[1][9] With no government-funded support, the club obtained permission from William Haueisin, a local white businessman, to established Oak Hill Camp on his property in 1905.
[8][12] After Oak Hill Camp closed in 1916, the clubwomen continued to raise funds care for the city's black tuberculosis patients and other projects.
The clubwomen also persuaded Van Camp Packing Company leaders to change its discriminatory practices and establish a division at its Indianapolis plant staffed with African-American women.
[16][17] In addition to its health care initiatives in Indiana, the all-black women's club supported the United States and its allies during World War I.
After earlier efforts proved to be unsuccessful, the clubwomen finally got the Indianapolis Flower Mission Hospital to agree to open a room for black tuberculosis patients in 1918, and secured funding from the War Chest Board to help finance it.
The clubwomen provided aid to indigent blacks facing eviction and food to the city's impoverished and underfed African American children.
[18] Between 1905 and 1935 the club provided health care to the city's African-American community, especially its tuberculosis patients, assisted its impoverished residents, and aided at-risk youth.
[20][21] While the club provided its members with opportunities for personal growth, educational improvement, and community service, it approached tuberculosis work in the "professional and scientific manner that prevailed during the Progressive Era.