New Improved Inspirational and Aspirational Tips for Presenting Successful Men's and Women's Day Programs . . . [Cover title]

Birmingham, Alabama: [N.P.], 1945. Very good. 6 " x 4¾". Stapled thin card wrappers. Pp. 68. Very good: light scuffing and sunning to wraps; long vertical crease to one page, two others with brief inked notations.

This is an unrecorded manual on presenting Women's Day observances, seemingly self-published by an African American woman who served as the first (and longtime) "State Counselor" of an organization for young Black Baptist women in Alabama, Pauline Thomas Campbell.

In 1945, members of the Women's Auxiliary to the Alabama Baptist State Convention founded a "Young Matrons" division to keep young Black women involved with the church after Sunday School and marriage. Pauline Thomas Campbell was appointed its first Counselor, a role she held from 1945 to 1967. A 1969 news article we found online called her a "Christian-Missionary writer of literature on the local, state, and National levels" who also served as a field representative of the Home Mission Board and at least 26 years as secretary of the State Sunday School and B.T.U. Congress. She graduated from Selma University, Miles College and Union Baptist Theological Seminary in Birmingham, and we found evidence of her speaking and organizing events as late as 1975.

This booklet lays out the writer's "new improved" tips for presenting programs and addresses in honor of Men's, Women's and Young Matron's Days. The preface explained that Women's Day had started "in the brilliant mind of Miss Nannie Helen Burroughs," who had recommended it to the National Convention while secretary in 1907. Campbell argued that "The time has long past for women of the Christian Church of this age to stop blundering, and present a program that will be informative, inspirational and spiritual for all classes of people. This cannot be done easily; a long range intensive planning of several settings is required for an all-around successful observance."

The book goes on to instruct on said planning, offering outlines, "hints" and excerpts from "National Baptist Convention women's sayings" as well as African American poets. There are Bible passages, theme ideas and addresses delivered by Campbell herself, along with her take on being a "Young Matron's Counselor": "you work hard, but do not expect to acquire wealth . . . you face many frustrations in sensing your own inadequacies and in the lack of comprehension upon the part of others. Yet, the rewards are many and wonderful . . ."

Rare and instructive inspiration from a leader in the Black Baptist women's movement. No holdings were located in OCLC or online.