One Hundred Years Ago SI/Washington, D.C., Becomes First Soroptimist Club on East Coast
On December 5, 1922, Soroptimist International of Washington, District of Columbia, celebrated its charter, becoming the first club on the east coast of the United States. Soon after chartering the Los Angeles club in July, Stuart Morrow, the original organizer of Soroptimist clubs, turned his attention east and focused on the nation’s capital.
More than 30 women gathered at the City Club on September 12, noting their interest in joining this new club. Among these women were several in the medical field; artists and photographers; stenographers; insurance and financial professionals; printers; construction businesses; clothing purveyors; and most interestingly, a police officer.
Several newspapers reported the club’s formation throughout early November. Although the names of members joining at many of the weekly meetings were noted, their professions were not after the first meeting. Ruby Lee Minar, who was a real estate agent and emerging real estate developer in the Virginia suburbs across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., joined the club during its third meeting on September 25. That November Ruby was elected by the club as its first president and in 1928, was elected as the first president of Soroptimist International of the Americas, Inc!
News Clip from the Evening Star (Washington, District of Columbia) dated October 3, 1922.
-Newspapers by Ancestry
During its formation, the club welcomed leaders from several other civic clubs to serve as guest speakers, including the president of the District of Columbia Federation of Women’s Clubs and the Washington Kiwanis club, who urged the club to choose officers based on how well they fit the position, not their popularity.
By the October 23 meeting, the club boasted 80 members. In a November 7 article in The Washington Herald, we have the only information about the last weeks of the club’s formation: a draft constitution was referred to a committee on November 6; the elections of the officers and board were slated for November 27 (which is cited as the club’s chartering date in documents in the Soroptimist archives); and the installation banquet was scheduled for December 5.
News Clip from The Washington Herald (Washington, District of Columbia) dated December 19, 1922.
-Newspapers by Ancestry
The last intriguing piece of information about the club was reported in late December when the December 19 edition of The Washington Herald ran an article headlined, “Soroptimists Ban All Politics At Meeting.” Being a city formed for the very essence of managing the nation’s government, Washington, D.C., was of course filled with politicians from all over the country.
A resolution is cited in the article stating, “the club should at no time, as an organization, have any participation in politics, or campaign for or against any candidate for political office.” The article continues, “It was unanimously agreed, according to a statement issued, that as an organization it was part of wisdom not to become involved in any political controversy.”
One of the earliest members of the club was Mina van Winkle, a suffragist and a police officer running the Women’s Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington D.C. In this position, she often testified before Congressional committees with oversight for the District of Columbia’s budget and local government; many of the Congressmen of that time were not in favor of having women in law enforcement.
In March 1922, Mina was accused, and eventually found innocent, of insubordination after she refused to hand over two run-away girls to men claiming to be their fathers without first determining the men’s identities. In addition, during Congressional testimony, and at other times, Mina often gave her views on married women—she was not in favor of married women working away from their families. This would seem to put Mina at odds with many of her fellow Soroptimist members.
It is a question that may never be answered, but it is entirely possible that there was dissension among the members of the new Washington, D.C. club–perhaps between Mina and others–and the quickest way to diffuse the dissension was to ban all politics and political controversy from the club. This is a recommendation Soroptimist continues to stick to today!
Although the Washington, D.C. club disbanded after 90 years in 2013, they play an important part in Soroptimist’s century-old history.
Links on Mina van Winkle
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