Black History Month comes with questions about early Black Girl Scout troops. Several councils claim to have had the first Black Girl Scout troop in the United States. Who’s right?
By now, researchers have likely discovered that the answer is not that easy.
Girls versus Troops
Definitions are important. Dates differ for the first Black girls and the first Black troops. The first Black Girl Scouts are believed to have been from New Bedford, MA, where the country’s third troop was established in 1913–the second year of the Girl Scout Movement. These young ladies also have the honor of being the first mixed-race troop in the United States.
New Bedford’s “long tradition of fair play” had its limits, however. In 1926 the city’s YWCA refused to let Black Girl Scouts use their swimming pool. The local YMCA pointed out that the girls’ brothers could swim in their pool.
Chicago Defender (June 5, 1926)
All-Black troops were present as early as 1917. When First Lady Edith Wilson was honored by the Girl Scouts in Philadelphia in 1918, local newspapers reported that more than one Black troop were present.
Record Keeping
Why the confusion? Record-keeping is spotty at best. Over time all troop rosters are condensed into numbers, with the names and even the troop numbers no longer needed.
Even if such lists were available, they would likely still be of little use. Membership forms did not ask about race.
Washington has scant remaining records from the early years, but the first Black troop is believed to have been Troop 66 in Prince George’s County, Maryland, led by Nellie Moss. The troop was formed in 1924, five years before the 1929 national Girl Scout convention publicly endorsed the idea of Black troops.
Washington has scant remaining records from the early years, but the first Black troop is believed to have been Troop 66 in Hyattsville, Maryland, led by Nellie Moss. The troop was formed in 1924, five years before the 1929 national Girl Scout convention that publicly endorsed the idea of Black troops.
Black troops were later established in Alexandria, Virginia (1936) and Arlington, Virginia (1945). Both towns were highly segregated and local laws banned Blacks and Whites from mingling after dark. As a result, Black leaders traveled to Rockwood National Girl Scout Camp in nearby Potomac, Maryland, for training. As a national property, Rockwood was open to all Girl Scouts.
Administrative Hurdles
In the South, there were councils that simply refused to register Black troops or members. Sadly, Washington DC was one of those councils.
Prince George’s County, Maryland, left the Washington Council in 1930 and established their own council.
According to its first director, Jessie Dashiell, she was “asked many times by friends why it was that they could organize a Girl Scout troop in Maryland and not in Washington.”
Eventually a compromise was reached in the 1930s whereby Black families in Washington DC had to send their registration information to the national Girl Scout headquarters in New York City. This administrative sleight-of-hand hid the issue from the general public.
Washington divided its territory into seven administrative zones. Districts 1-6 corresponded to neighborhoods–defined by geography. District 7 was comprised of all Black Girl Scout troops. Thus, “District 7” was code for segregation.
A large class of new Black leaders graduated in 1937, with training provided by the Washington Council’s (White) president, Carol Phelps Stokes. Black troops participated when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain visited Washington in 1939. (See featured image.)
Registrations sent directly to the Washington Council office were to be forwarded to New York, but inevitably, not all arrived on time–or at all.
Ghost Girl Scout Troops
The registration hurdles meant that some Black troops were never formally registered. But persistent leaders carried on, obtaining a handbook and having the girls sew their own uniforms and embroider their own badges. These “ghost” Girl Scouts may never have even known that they weren’t official.
Alternate Research Strategies
How can we find Black troops from the past? There are several strategies.
Sidelines
Mainstream newspapers generally ignored Black troops. They would not report on the activities of these troops, but sometimes their presence is briefly mentioned or seen in coverage of large, city-wide events.
According to Ebony magazine (March 1962), Black and White troops in the South have
… succeeded in breaking down the taboo of white newspapers against publishing photographs of Negroes and have held city-wide meetings in some Southern cities on a non-segregated basis.
In its coverage of Black History Month, GSUSA has written that:
In 1924, three full decades before U.S. public schools were desegregated, Josephine Holloway became the first Black Girl Scout troop leader. She opened the door for young Black girls to see their own Black Girl Magic as part of Girl Scouts.
This is confusing. Presumably, the blog post means public schools in the South, as segregation was not common in Northern states.
And while Josephine Holloway‘s importance is unquestioned, perhaps GSUSA means she was the first Black leader in Nashville, after the council began to register Black troops in 1942. She later became the first Black professional worker in the Nashville area council as well.
Prior to 1942, Mrs. Holloway organized over a dozen unofficial troops, using the “Ghost Girl Scout Troop” strategy.
Newspaper Research Tips
Newspaper aggregation sites like Newspapers.com reflect the society of the time. Searches for “African American Girl Scout troops” in the 1920s will have zero results. The terms may be uncomfortable today, but productive searches need to use “colored” and “Negro.”
Another option is to search back issues of Afro-American newspapers. This collection is becoming increasingly available through digitization projects.
From the Baltimore Afro-American, for example, I learned that while Washington established a Black-only day camp, Pine Crest, in 1937, the camp directors were trained at the Edith Macy Training School, a national facility in tony Westchester County, New York in the 1930s. Other stories described daily life at day camp, including staff names.
History can be inferred by seemingly unrelated articles. For example, if a leader is receiving her 10-year membership recognition, it’s highly likely that her community had Black troops 10 years earlier. Florence Caldwell may have led one of the troops that greeted First Lady Edith Wilson.
Finally, don’t forget the Boy Scouts. If a community had separate Black Boy Scout troops at a particular point in time, it likely Girl Scouts from the same community did, too.
© 2026 Ann Robertson, writer, editor, Girl Scout historian, but NOT a Girl Scout employee.
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