Lugenia Burns was born in St. Louis, Missouri, February 19, 1871. Throughout her youth, Lugenia Burns worked for various charitable organizations, inspiring a lifelong interest in social outreach work. Between 1890 and 1893, she studied at the Chicago Art Institute, the Chicago School of Design, and the Chicago Business College. Lugenia Burns married John Hope in 1897 and moved with him to Atlanta when he joined the faculty of the Atlanta Baptist College ; he was later appointed the institution's president in 1906. With the help of Morehouse students, she surveyed local area residents about their needs for community development projects, which eventually led to the college providing day care, kindergarten, and recreational programs. Her community involvement led her in 1908 to create the Neighborhood Union, the first woman-run social welfare agency for African Americans in Atlanta, which provided medical, recreational, employment, and educational services and became known for its community building and race and gender activism. Hope served as head of its Board of Managers until 1936.
Activism
Because only white soldiers were served by the United Service Organization's entertainment programs in World War II, the Neighborhood Union ran YWCA War Work Councils to provide similar services to the African-American community. Their success led to Lugenia Hope coordinating a US-wide network of Hostess Houses that provided services ranging from recreational programs to relocation counseling to African American and Jewish soldiers and their families. A founding member of the Atlanta branch of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Hope became involved in reform activities nationwide, such as her 1920 effort to end segregation and white-domination within the national YWCA. Her statement to white women who opposed full equality in the YWCA for African-American women was: "Ignorance is ignorance wherever found, yet the most ignorant white woman may enjoy every privilege that America offers. Now...the ignorant Negro woman should also enjoy them." An innovative thinker on racial politics, Hope criticized the common belief that African American needed to prove their worthiness as citizens, and as vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People of Atlanta organized six-week courses on voting, democracy, and the U.S. Constitution. This work was later copied across the country, and these classes became part of the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement.
