sentences:  Jennings's mother was a prominent woman known for penning the speech "On the Improvement of the Mind," which ten-year-old Elizabeth Jennings delivered at a meeting of the Ladies Literary Society of New York, which was founded in 1834 and of which Jennings's mother was a member.The literary society was founded by New York's elite black women to promote self-improvement through community activities, reading and discussion.Produced and given in 1837, the speech discusses how the neglect of cultivating the mind would keep blacks inferior to whites and would have whites and enemies believe that blacks do not have any minds at all.