The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was established in Washington in 1896. Its two leading members were Josephine Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell. The original intention of the organization was "to furnish evidence of the moral, mental and material progress made by people of colour through the efforts of our women". However, over the next ten years the NACW became involved in the campaigns in favour of women's suffrage and against lynching and Jim Crow laws. By the time the United States entered the First World War membership of the NACW had reached 300,000.