Women for City Living was organized in the summer of 1969 when Delphine McClellan, along with Virginia Feinberg and Anna Busch, began to explore what other American women were doing about crime. McClellan, a lifelong resident of St. Louis' Central West End neighborhood, decided to take a stand when robberies, burglaries, arson, and sexual assaults in the Central West End prompted many residents to abandon the area. The group soon had 600 members, both black and white, and first focused its efforts on the enforcement of building codes, and tracking down absentee landlords to ensure that owners kept up their buildings. Women for City Living worked to close down houses of prostitution and to help families buy homes in the city. In 1970, at the request of Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes, McClellan and Women for City Living developed the Women’s Crusade Against Crime, a city-wide effort to combat crime in numerous neighborhoods, including Walnut Park, Compton Heights, and The Hill. The Women’s Crusade took on drug dealers, tracked down stolen goods, and advocated job training in the state correctional system. For her work as president of Women for City Living and co-chair of the Women’s Crusade, Delphine McClellan received the St. Louis Globe-Democrat’s 1970 Woman of Achievement Award, and a number of additional awards and citations.