Chapter History

Section 2: JACK AND JILL OF AMERICA, INCORPORATED – BROOKLYN CHAPTER

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Brooklyn Chapter History

An idea grows in Brooklyn

While the Brooklyn Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. was not founded until May 1952, it was on Founder Louise Truitt Jackson Dench’s trip to Brooklyn in the late 1930’s, where the idea for the organization was conceived. Louise attended a party in Brooklyn where the children of friends were getting together every Christmas, despite having moved to different boroughs or cities. So moved and impressed by this gathering in Brooklyn, Louise brought this idea back to her hometown of

Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and discussed it with her dear friend, Founder Marion Stubbs, who executed the idea and had the first club meeting of Jack and Jill at her Philadelphia home on January 21, 1938. The Brooklyn Christmas party would become a staple of the Brooklyn Chapter of Jack and

Jill after its chartering fourteen years later.

The Brooklyn Chapter is chartered

While Brooklyn mothers were participating in the New York, New York Jack and Jill Club, it was on

November 10, 1950, a group of women met in the Brooklyn home of Mrs. Emilie Pickens (who served as the first National First Vice President of the newly incorporated national organization of Jack and

Jill and later the organization’s National President) to discuss the formation of a Brooklyn interest group.

On January 27, 1951, the organization began to develop under the chairpersonship of Mrs. Gwendolyn S. Bourne. On February 26, 1951, the thirteen would be charter members met at the home of Mrs. Margaret Turner and elected Mrs. Bourne as President; Mrs. Vernice Horne, Vice President; Mrs. Adele Hairston, Treasurer; Mrs. Lurline Purvis, Recording Secretary; Mrs. Louise Smith, Corresponding Secretary; and Mrs. Anna Fultz Historian of this newly formed provisional group. As the group grew, more members were added and chairwomen appointed for each of the four children’s groups, divided according to age levels. Activities and programs for each group were set up, including outings to the zoo and other points of interest, clay sculpture, finger painting, horseback riding, and a large variety of other entertaining and educational programs. In June of 1952, at the National Conference in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, the National Council of Jack and Jill officially accepted the Brooklyn Chapter as the 39th Chapter of its illustrious organization. An installation luncheon, shared with the newly accepted Queens Chapter was held on September 28, 1952. By 1956, the Brooklyn Chapter included a roster of over 60 impressive, dedicated and hard-working mothers.

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Brooklyn’s place in Jack & Jill History

Brooklyn Chapter has the privilege of being the 39th Chapter to enter into Jack and Jill of America and thus remains an integral chapter in the organization’s history. As host of the 10th Eastern Regional Teen Age Conference in 1961; Eastern Regional Conference in 1975; the Eastern Region Teen Conference in 1985, and most recently, the Eastern Region Teen Conference in 2020, Brooklyn continues to be an integral chapter in Jack and Jill history. In its almost seventyyear history, the award-winning Brooklyn Chapter has remained steadfast and committed to community service, promoting mental health and wellness, philanthropy, leadership, and academic achievement for our children and the greater Brooklyn community.

Today, the Brooklyn Chapter is over eighty-five families strong as we continue to Work Hard, Play Hard, and Live Harmoniously Together. With eighteen (18) formal committees in place including Foundations, Charities, Scholarship, Legislative and Community Service, the Chapter is constantly identifying opportunities and cultivating relationships in order to support a variety of efforts in Brooklyn and around the nation. From drives to obliterate polio in the 1950’s, civil rights litigation in the 1960’s, the support of the NAACP in the 1970s, programs to combat poverty and educational disparities in the 80s and 90s, recovery efforts for Hurricane Sandy victims in 2012, to organizing COVID-19 response and relief efforts, the Brooklyn Chapter remains an integral community partner in Brooklyn.

In addition to the Chapter mother’s tireless community service efforts and steadfast commitment to creating solid year-round programming and activities for its families, the Brooklyn Chapter Jack and Jill Teen Group has its own impressive history of programming and service. The Brooklyn Chapter Jack and Teen Christmas Party spans almost seven decades to bring fun and merriment to its teen group while supporting so many worthwhile causes like the Police Athletic League to combat juvenile delinquency in 1959. The Brooklyn Chapter Jack and Jill Teen Group has garnered national attention for its legislative initiatives, including its Teen Forum – “the U.S and Us – Answer to a Bigot”– which discussions centered around a published letter to President Eisenhower in which a New England businessman assails the Supreme Court’s school desegregation ruling and declares that the Negro has made no contribution to the United States.

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