Joseph Sturge Mission School Opening and Friends' Freedmen's Relief Association Funds Request

The Joseph Sturge Mission School, a First Day school for African Americans, was established in 1865 and was located at the corner of Locust St. and Raspberry Alley in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Classes were held in the Locust Street Mission Association building (918 Locust St.). In 1917, an Executive Committee, known as the Benezet House Association, was formed to educate and aid the city's poor African Americans and immigrants. The committee was made up of the Joseph Sturge Mission School, Anthony Benezet School, and Western District Colored School. A combination of a declining African American population and financial aid withdrawal from the Welfare Federation led to the disbanding of the committee. The school was demolished and sold in 1945.

The Friends' Freedmen's Relief Association, formerly called Friends' Association of Philadelphia and Its Vicinity for the Relief of Colored Freedmen, was founded in 1863 to aid and provide education to freed enslaved people, with a number of schools in Virginia and North Carolina. By the 20th century, state governments were playing a role in educating poor African Americans, and the association shifted to supporting black students, summer work camps, and scholarships. The association disbanded in 1982, with aid being placed under the J. Henry Scattergood Scholarship Fund, to be distributed by Bryn Mawr, Earlham, Guilford, and Haverford Colleges.