Charlotte Ray

Born this day in 1850: Charlotte Ray (1850–1911), teacher, first African American woman to hold a law degree, and first woman of any color to be admitted to the bar in Washington, D.C.

Charlotte Ray was a native of New York City and daughter of a pastor who was a prominent member of the African American community and a conductor on the underground railroad. She attended the Institution for the Education of Colored Youth, in Washington, D.C., and in 1869 became a teacher at Howard University in the schools the normal and preparatory department. She also studied law while at Howard, receiving her law degree in 1872. She was the first African American woman in the United States to receive a law degree. She was admitted to the D.C. bar—the law had just been changed, deleting being male as a requirement—becoming the first woman admitted to the bar in the District of Columbia.

Ray set up a law practice, specializing in commercial law, but could not get enough clients to keep her practice open. Accounts describe her as a more than able lawyer, but that racial prejudice kept clients away. By 1879 she resumed her teaching career in her home state of New York, teaching in the Brooklyn public schools.

Not very much is known about the rest of her life. She was active in the women’s movement—records show that she was a delegate to the National Woman Suffrage Association’s annual meeting in New York City in 1876. She married in the late 1880s. In 1895 she joined the newly founded National Association of Colored Women.  Ray died of acute bronchitis in 1911.

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Selma Burke

Born this day in 1900: Selma Burke (1900–1995), sculptor

Burke was born in Moorseville, North Carolina. Her father encouraged her early interest in art, but her mother encouraged her to become a nurse. Burke graduated from the Slater Industrial and State Normal School (later Winston-Salem State University) and then earned an RN from the Saint Agnes Training School for Nurses in 1924.

Beginning in the late 1920s Burke worked as a private nurse to Amelia Waring, a wealthy heiress. This relationship gave Burke access to New York society and arts culture. After Waring’s death, Burke abandoned her nursing career for a career in art. She was awarded scholarships that allowed her to study both at home and abroad. She studied at Sarah Lawrence College, in Europe, and at Columbia University, where she earned a MA of fine arts in 1941. She also had her fist solo exhibition that same year. 

Bronze plaque of FDR

In 1943 she won a competition to create a profile of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The relief she created formed the basis for the Roosevelt dime, making her the first African American sculptor to design a U.S. coin. She made portraits of other prominent Americans as well, including such figures as Mary McLeod Bethune and Booker T. Washington. She completed more than 20 commissioned works in bronze and wood, and her work appeared in more than 25 shows. Her last monumental work was a sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. that stands in Charlotte’s Marshall Park, completed when Burke was 80 years old. Burke’s work was recognized nationwide. She was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees during her lifetime.

The artist at work.

Her dedication to art including the teaching of art. In the 1940s she was a Works Progress Administration art instructor and taught art at the Harlem Community Art Center under the sculptor August Savage. She went on to teach at many institutions, including Swarthmore College, Livingston College, the A. W. Mellon Foundation, and Harvard University. She also founded two art schools. In 1940 she founded the Selma Burke school of Sculpture in New York. In 1968 she established the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh. Burke especially enjoyed bringing children into the art world and for 17 years taught art in Pittsburgh public schools. In her later years she returned to school as a student, as well, earning a  PhD from Livingstone College in 1970. 

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Thea Bowman

Sister Thea swapped out her habit for a dashiki
and head wrap.

Born this day in 1937: Thea Bowman (1937–1990), first African American member the of Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and nun who helped bridge the gap between white Catholicism and African Americans

Thea Bowman was born Bertha J. Bowman and grew up in Canton, Mississippi. She was the daughter of a medical doctor, Theon Edward Bowman, and a music teacher, Mary Esther Coleman (and the granddaughter of slaves). Her parents were a great influence on her. So too were the “old folks” of her community, who kept alive African American folk traditions in both story and song.

Bowman was baptized as an Episcopalian and attended various Protestant churches. In the 1940s she became acquainted with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, a group of white nuns from Wisconsin, who crossed the color lines of Canton to teach black children at the Holy Child Jesus School. At the young age of 10, Bowman decided to become Catholic, and her parents allowed her to attend the mission school. By age 12 Bowman knew she wanted to become a nun. She traveled to Wisconsin in 1953 to join the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at the St. Rose Convent in La Crosse. She took her vows and the name Thea (“of god”) in 1956.

In 1965 Bowman graduated magna cum laude with an English degree from Viterbo College (the order’s school). In 1969 she earned an MA in English from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and in 1972 earned a PhD in language, literature, and linguistics. She then began to study African American music and literary traditions.

Bowman taught at Viterbo College, serving as chair of the English department and director of the Hallelujah Singers, and gave workshops and presentations at other schools, workshops, conferences, and churches. She wove together Catholic teachings and practices and African American cultural and religious traditions and styles. She became well-known for her gospel singing. She also served as director of intercultural awareness for the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi.

Through her work she brought the Catholic Church into the African American community. At the same time, she advocated for greater presence of African Americans within the Church structure and thought. During her career she helped found the First National Black Sisters Conference, the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans, and the National Black Catholic Congress. She even wrote a Catholic hymnal for churches in African American communities. In addition to advancing African American participation in the Church, she advocated for a stronger role for women as well.

By all accounts Bowman was a dynamic, mesmerizing, inspiring speaker, singer, and role model. She was the recipient of numerous honors during her lifetime and was posthumously awarded the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame University.  

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Sarah Breedlove Walker, a.k.a. Madame C. J. Walker

“I had to make my own living and my own opportunity. But I made it! Don’t sit down and wait for the opportunities to come. Get up and make them.”

—Sarah Breedlove Walker

Born this day in 1867: Sarah Breedlove Walker, a.k.a. Madame C. J. Walker (1867–1919), business woman, philanthropist, first African American woman millionaire

Sarah Breedlove was born the daughter of sharecroppers in Louisiana and was orphaned by age six. She was married at age 14, widowed by age 20. For 18 years she raised her daughter, A’Lelia, by herself. Breedlove worked as a washerwoman and studied at night. After years of experimenting, she developed a hairstyling product for African American women and began selling it locally.

In 1906 she moved to Colorado and married newspaperman Charles J. Walker. In Colorado she set up a successful mail order business to sell the “Walker Method.”

Her business grew and she hired women as agents to sell her product door-to-door. She rebranded herself as Madame C.J. Walker and moved her company headquarters to Indianappolis in 1910. At the height of its success the Madame C.J. Walker Company employed 3,ooo agents in the U.S. and throughout the Caribbean. Walker carefully trained her agents to use and sell her products (a range of products and appliances) and aggressively promoted her products through advertising and personal tours.

Between her successful business and shrewd real estate investments, Walker amassed a fortune. She became a very generous philanthropist. Among her causes were education, anti-lynching campaigns, homes for the aged, and the NAACP. She even encouraged her agents to engage in philanthropy, giving out cash prizes to the Walker agent social clubs that performed the most community work.

Walker established a trust fund to support her favorite causes and left the bulk of her state to A’Leila, including her business (in which A’Leila had played an active part). A’Leila (A’Leila Walker Kennedy) went on to be an important founder of the Harlem Renaissance.

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Jane Edna Hunter

Born this day in 1882: Jane Edna Hunter (1882–1971), social worker, lawyer, and nurse who founded the Phillis Wheatley Association of Cleveland

Jane Edna Hunter was born Jane Edna Harris to a sharecropping family in South Carolina. She began working at the age of 10 and entered school, illiterate, at the age of 15. She graduated in 1900 with an eighth grade graduation. She continued working a variety of jobs, mostly service jobs. She became Jane Edna Hunter upon her brief marriage to Edward Hunter.

Hunter returned to school, graduating from Virginia’s Hampton Institute Training School for Nurses in 1905 as a trained nurse. She began working a series of nursing jobs. Later, she graduated from the law school at Baldwin-Wallace College and passed the Ohio bar exam in 1925.

As working woman, Hunter discovered the need for safe, affordable housing for single, working, African American woman. To that end, she founded the Working Girls Association in 1911, which later that same year changed its name to the Phillis Wheatley Association. Staring with only “a nickel and a prayer,” she raised funds to establish a settlement house. The association became a model for several similar organizations throughout the nation. It was sometimes criticized by other African Americans, who felt it only encouraged segregation (for example, circumventing the need for the YWCA to integrate). 

The Phillis Wheatley house, like other settlement houses, provided more than housing. It also promoted employment and social development training. Hunter served as the association’s executive secretary until 1948. She was also an active member of the National Association of Colored Women. After Hunter retired she established the Phillis Wheatley Foundation, which provides scholarships for African American high school graduates. The foundation later established a scholarship in her name. She was the recipient of several honorary degrees, and Ohion’s Cuyahoga County’s Department of Children and Family Services named its main building after her.

As the need for group housing diminished, the organization has shifted its focus to other community needs, including recreational and cultural programs, daycare, and housing for low-income elderly.

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