Harriet Tubman Freedom Ride 2021

The present Southside Community Center (SSCC) is the legacy of the work and ideals of the Francis Harper Women’s Club, a group of Black women leaders in the Ithaca community. In March of 1927, the Francis Harper Women’s Club organized the Serve-Us League to serve the residents of the historically Black Southside neighborhood of Ithaca, NY. Founded with just $220, raised by Mrs. Vera Irvin (president) and Mrs. Gessie Cooper, the SSCC was to be a non-sectarian and non-partisan organization for the “uplifting” of every individual. For the first seven years of its existence, the Center met in a house at 221 South Plain Street, and in 1932 purchased the property at 305 South Plain Street, the current home of the Center. In 1936 the structure was razed, and in 1937 the current facility was erected by the Works Progress Administration in cooperation with the Southside Corporation and the City of Ithaca. The building was dedicated in a ceremony attended by the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1938.