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The Story of Tuberculosis

Nurses in white and other people seen on the porch or in front of a quaint wooden building labeled "Neighborhood House."
Nurses and Babies in front of Neighborhood House. (Photo: Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center)

Neighborhood Union, a Black women's wellness organization, is founded in Atlanta.

Date: 1908

The Story of Tuberculosis
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Nurses and Babies in front of Neighborhood House. (Photo: Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center)

This organization is founded by Lugenia Burns Hope, along with eight other Black women. The Neighborhood Union is a response to the white-led (and largely "whites-only") anti-tuberculosis movement. They will become a leader in fighting for Black care and wellness outside of the white-dominated anti-tuberculosis movement at the start of the century. The union fights for school improvements and neighborhood sanitation, and opens a settlement house and a health clinic.

Boomer (2022) writes: "The group offered temporary housing, food, classes in parenting and elderly care, medical attention, and other services. Hundreds of such clubs existed around the country. They were early models of grassroots organizing and community building."