Kate Waller Barrett

Kate Waller Barrett (January 24, 1857 – February 23, 1925), née Katherine Harwood Waller, was a prominent Virginia physician, humanitarian, philanthropist, sociologist and social reformer, best known for her leadership of the National Florence Crittenton Mission, which she founded in 1895 with Charles Nelson Crittenton. Her causes included helping the "outcast woman, the mistreated prisoner, those lacking in educational and social opportunity, the voteless woman, and the disabled war veteran." Although comparatively little known today, she was "[o]ne of the most prominent women of her time".

Biography

Barrett was born Katherine Harwood Waller at her family's historic estate, Clifton, in Widewater, Virginia, to Ann Eliza Stribbling Waller and Withers Waller on January 24, 1857. Her family owned slaves on several large plantations, and Barrett's two young black playmates named Jane and Lucy were "given" to young Kate as a birthday gift on her sixth birthday by her grandmother. Later regretting these circumstances, Barrett stated "I looked upon them as mine by 'divine right' and many were the lessons of cruelty and lack of appreciation of the rights of others cultivated in me."

Katherine Waller attended Arlington Institute for Girls in Alexandria, Virginia, after the Civil War. On July 19, 1876, she married Robert South Barrett (1851–1896), a young Episcopal minister fresh out of seminary, who had been recently assigned to the nearby Aquia Church. It was while traveling with and assisting her husband with his work in Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia, that she first witnessed the social problems which would form the impetus for her life's work.

In particular, soon after Robert South Barrett, Jr., the first of their six children, was born in Richmond, Virginia, a young unmarried woman with her own child begged for help at their door. The Barretts provided the young woman with a meal and listened as she told of being deserted by a man who had promised marriage. Barrett recognized the similarities between herself and the young woman, and concluded that only luck separated her from the young woman in her home; one of them had fallen in love with a "good" man and one with a "bad" one. Furthermore, from her own experiences as a slaveholder and with Jim Crow laws, Barrett also realized how spirits could be broken by degradation. Profoundly moved by her new-found bond with this "fallen" woman, she vowed, "By the power of God that rules the Universe, I would spend my life trying to wipe out some of the inequalities that were meted out to my sisters who were so helpless to help themselves."

Doctor, mother, widow

When Rev. Barrett was assigned to Atlanta in 1886, Katherine Barrett, with his encouragement, pursued a medical degree, while also establishing what came to be her first shelter for unwed mothers. The Women's Medical College of Georgia awarded Barrett an M.D. in 1892 and a doctor of science degree in 1894. Barrett never intended to practice as a physician, but wanted to bolster her credibility: "she recognized that the initials 'M.D.' behind her name gave weight to her viewpoints."

While earning those degrees and working on numerous charitable causes, Barrett also raised six children, with the considerable assistance of a black nanny. Her husband's health, never robust, began failing, and they returned to the Alexandria area while he was assigned in Washington, D.C., and later traveled to Europe to seek cures. Thus, Barrett also studied nursing at the Florence Nightingale Training School in London, England. However, Rev. Barrett died in 1896, leaving his 39-year-old widow with six young children.

National Florence Crittenton Mission

Leading Florence Crittenton work

Barrett's central interest was the plight of unmarried mothers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a group that suffered from national prejudices. After starting a "rescue home" on her own in Atlanta, despite being officially opposed by the local government, she joined forces with Charles Nelson Crittenton (1833–1909), a wealthy New Yorker also interested in creating safe havens for "fallen women."

Crittenton had been establishing rescue homes, primarily oriented toward providing women an alternative to prostitution. He founded the first one in New York City in 1883 following the death of his beloved four-year-old daughter, Florence, after whom he named them. He established others in California and then, in conjunction with the Women's Christian Temperance Union, in various parts of the U.S. However, he confided to Barrett that he feared that isolated homes would collapse after a period of initial enthusiasm.

When Barrett's husband moved the family back to Alexandria, Virginia, she was freed from the daily work of the Atlanta rescue home, and systematically pursued Crittenton's idea for a national association of homes. In 1895, they founded the National Florence Crittenton Mission, with Crittenton as president and Barrett as vice president. Upon the death of her husband on September 12, 1896, Crittenton added general superintendent to Barrett's roles, which she pursued as a single mother of six. Barrett successfully secured for the NFCM the first-ever federal charter for a charitable organization, through a special act of Congress signed by President William McKinley on April 9, 1898.

Upon his death, she succeeded Crittenton as president in 1909, but retained the general superintendent role as well, serving in both positions until she died on February 23, 1925. Operating more than 70 homes around the country and abroad, at the time of her death one-third of all maternity homes in the U.S. were affiliated with the Florence Crittenton chain.

Shift in emphasis

Although Charles Crittenton's emphasis was on rescuing prostitutes, he agreed with Barrett that unmarried mothers and their children were important. Under Barrett's influence, the emphasis slowly shifted to prioritizing unmarried mothers with a secondary emphasis on prostitutes.

Barrett was instrumental in helping unwed mothers become an acceptable subject of philanthropy. She successfully advocated her social reform views by giving a number of public speeches and publishing a number of articles on the plight of the unwed mother.

Although the NFCM shifted its emphasis from prostitution to unmarried mothers, Barrett led forcefully when the anti-prostitution scare under the label of "white slavery" surfaced around 1910. "When many in the United States were caught up in the white-slavery hysteria, Barrett and the NFCM pushed to help the victims of prostitution rather than to punish them as offenders... NFCM public pronouncements denounced attempts to place the blame for prostitution solely on women".