In nineteenth-century Atlanta, private charities represented the only economic safety net for those struggling to navigate the rapidly-changing terrain of the New South. During the Progressive Era, these charities lacked the resources to provide relief for waves of new urban migrants and many focused exclusively on the needs of the white community. The exclusion of African Americans from the few social service programs that existed prompted Black women to develop their own agencies committed to addressing community welfare in Black neighborhoods. One such woman was Carrie Steele who established the state’s first Black orphanage in 1888. Steele witnessed growing numbers of homeless Black children living in downtown Atlanta as she worked as a maid at Union Station for the Central of Georgia Railway. Steele initially housed abandoned children in her cottage on Wheat Street and later fundraised for the construction of what would become the Carrie Steele Orphan Home by publishing a biographical book and selling her own cottage. The orphanage not only served as a shelter for abandoned children, but also provided children with an education that would later allow them to gain employment in the city. Steele occupied the role of director at the orphanage without compensation until her death in 1900, and the Carrie Steele Orphan Home would ultimately care for over 20,000 children.

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