Woman's Relief Corps

The Woman's Relief Corps (WRC) is a charitable organization in the United States, originally founded as the official women's auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in 1883.

In 1879, a group of Massachusetts women from different associations started a "secret" organization that sought to more effectively unify the various local and state relief programs that had been loyal to the North during the American Civil War.

[2] One notable African-American WRC member was Susie Taylor, who helped organize Corps 67 in Boston, Massachusetts in 1886, and over the next twelve years served as its secretary, treasurer, and president.

[citation needed] Two other black women, Anna Hughes and Marilla Bradbury also held officer positions in the Martin Delaney Corps.

[2] As desegregation of the state departments continued, members at the national level, such as president Abbie Addams, wanted to halt black corps from being created.

In the 20th century, the WRC gained a political foothold as it lobbied for feminist policies and pensions for Union nurses, as well as patriotic education.

[8] Early on in the creation of the WRC, Memorial Day was used to teach patriotism and nationalism to children of all ages across the North (there was an effort in the South, but there was a great deal of resistance).

The members of the Woman's Relief Corps with the assistance of children would make floral wreaths and place them alongside American Flags at the graves of Union veterans and nurses who died during and since the Civil War.

– Van Deer Voort, The National Tribune, December 21, 1882 “I cannot forget that our white soldiers, flying for their lives, were often glad to sleep in the beds, and share the coarse food of the loyal colored people.

Although in entire sympathy with the Lincoln Proclamation, white women of the Southland do not associate so closely with the colored race, and thus the downward pathway was started."