Florence Home for Colored Girls (1925-Circa 1970)

Established in 1925, Florence Home for Colored Girls was an organization dedicated to assisting African American mothers and their children by providing counseling, education, shelter, and medical care in Kansas City. The home was initially located at 2446 Michigan Street and later moved to an expanded facility at 2228 Campbell Avenue. In the 1970s, the Florence Home for Colored Girls became the Florence Home and merged with the previously white-only Florence Crittenton Home.

The Florence Home for Colored Girls was an organization dedicated to assisting African American mothers and their children with obtaining counseling, education, shelter, and medical care in the Kansas City area in the mid-20th century. The home was started by Mrs. Elizabeth Bruce Corgman. Crogman was a volunteer with Kansas City's Urban League and often visited the Jackson County Juvenile Court, where she encountered many young pregnant African American girls, who had no where to go. Their parents didn't want them and they couldn't go to the segregated Florence Crittendon Home.

She decided she needed to do something and asked philanthropist Willam Volker for help. He told her that if she found a suitable home, he would purchase it. She found a four-bedroom home at 2446 Michigan in 1925, that could only assist approximately seven mothers and their children at once. It was located across the street from the Niles Home, Kansas City's orphanage for African American children. However, it was quickly apparent that the home on MIchigan Ave could only help a fraction of the women in need. Therefore, Crogman turned again to Mr. Volker, who promised her $10,000 towards a new facility, if she could raise the rest. Mrs. William Marty donated a lot for the new home at 2228 Campbell, a few blocks from General Hospital No. 2, Kansas City's hospital for African Americans. All told, Crogman raised over $35,000 for the construction of the new Florence Home for Colored Girls, which opened in 1930. It was a 25-room Colonial style structure, with facilities to care for up to 30 young mothers and their babies at a time. Area physicians and nurses volunteered their time at the home and Crogman was now able to offer counseling, help with adoptions, Bible study and classes in cooking, sewing and housekeeping. Crogman retired from her position as director in 1945.

In 1958, the Florence Home for Colored Girls became simply the Florence Home. In the 1970s, the Florence Home merged with the previously whites-only Florence Crittenton Home. Anna Spoerre wrote for The Kansas City Star in 2021 that "Expectant mothers [played] games in a community meeting room and [ate] meals at a dining hall. The place had a college dormitory feel, in ways. But unlike a college dorm, there was a nurse who checked on the girls and women and accompanied them to the hospital, where, by then, they were taken to give birth. A teacher from the Kansas City school district was also hired to help the girls keep up their education (Spoerre)." The neighborhood of Kansas City where the Florence Home for Colored Girls used to stand on Campbell Avenue is now a parking lot in the Hospital Hill area.

Bernard, Diane and Bogen-Oskwarek, Maria. The maternity homes where ‘mind control’ was used on teen moms to give up their babies, The Washington Post. November 19th 2018. https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2018/11/19/maternity-homes-where-mind-control-was-used-teen-moms-give-up-their-babies/.

Johnson, Mary. A Study of the Services Rendered Unmarried Mothers By the Florence Crittenton 

Home, Kansas City, Missouri, January–December 1947. Atlanta, Georgia. June 1949.

Spoerre, Anna. 2021. “Unwed Black Mothers in 20th Century Kansas City Found Refuge in Home for Women, Girls.” Kansas City Star, The (KS), May 13, 2021. https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.umkc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=2W63167678581&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Roe, Jason. “Florence Home for Colored Girls.” The Pendergast Years, December 8, 2017. 

https://pendergastkc.org/article/buildings-orgs/florence-home-colored-girls.

Flynn, Jane Finfield. Kansas City Women of Independent Minds. Kansas City, Mo. Fifield Publishing, 1992.