About the Miami Dade Club
The Miami Dade Club of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Clubs, Inc. (NANBPWC) was organized in January 1987 and chartered in June 1988. Founding members were Carol Ann Barnes, Linda Payne, Renee Francis Lee, Esq., Georgia McLean, Wilhelmina Tribble, Lillie Latimore, Kathleen Worthy, Diana Smith, Esq., and Carole Ann Taylor.
The current president is Earnestine (“Mikki”) Thompson.
Our highest award granted to a member of the community is the Sojourner Truth Award. The most-recent awardees were Gerri Rocker (2023) and Dr. Tina Carroll-Scott (2021).
At our Founder’s Day event in 2023, the Miami Dade Club dedicated our college scholarships to the memory of Gloria Gibson Fuller, a Life Member of the NANBPWC who annually supported the scholarship initiative through her own donations and by sponsoring an annual fundraising garage sale and other activities.
Officers:
President: Earnestine Thompson
Vice President: Georgia McLean
Secretary: JoAnn Byrd
Treasurer: Edith Brown
Financial Secretary: Gerri Rocker
Membership: JoAnn Byrd
Historian: Wylene Robinson
About the National Organization
Emma Odessa Young, a New York City real estate broker and member of the New York Club of Business and Professional Women, conceived the idea of a national organization of business and professional women in 1934, but became ill and never sought to head the organization.
In July 1935, Ollie Chinn Porter, president of the New York Club, extended an invitation to other Business and Professional Women’s Clubs to unite to form a national organization. The founders were Emma Odessa Young, Ollie Chinn Porter, and Effie Diton of New York City; Bertha Perry Rhodes, Josephine B. Keene, and Adelaide Flemming of Philadelphia; and Goldeana Pearle Flipping of Atlantic City.
After a year of organizational meetings, the first convention was held in July 1936 in Atlantic City, hosted by the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church on Arctic Avenue. Ollie Chinn Porter was elected as the first national president of the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Clubs, Inc.
The aim of this newly formed national organization was, as it is today, to attract women of high caliber to organize similar clubs that would allow Black women to share their experiences and exchange information, to protect their interests, and to encourage and develop opportunities for Black women in business and professions.
During that time in U.S. history, Black people were called “Negros. Few had businesses or professions. And the country was still deep in the throes of the Great Depression. The fact that these Black women had the courage and foresight to found such an optimistic organization is astounding and is a lasting testimony to their faith in themselves, our people, and the future.
The founders were owners, managers, college graduates, and other professionally licensed women who had managed to realize a measure of personal success, at a time when there were few national movements to improve the lot of Black Americans; where there was no Black capitalism program nor any Black Studies curricula. Still, these women felt prepared to offer leadership.
Over the years, NANBPWC, Inc. has grown in numbers and scope, conducting many needed community service activities that go far beyond the original purpose. Women have come a long way, and so has the NANBPWC, Inc.!