Martha Platt Falconer

Born this day in 1862: Martha Platt Falconer (1862–1941), social worker and reformer noted for revolutionizing correctional programs for delinquent girls.

Falconer was born Martha Platt in Delaware, Ohio. After the death of her mother in 1877 she lived for a time in Philadelphia with one sister and then in Kansas with another. The independence of frontier women made a lasting imprssion on Falconer, who then took up the cause of suffrage and devoted her career to women’s needs.

In 1885 she married Cyrus Falconer, a Santa Fe Railroad employee. The couple had three children. In 1888 they moved to Chicago, where Falconer became active in civic work and social reform.

Falconer served as one of Cook County’s first juvenile probation officers. She later worked for the Illinois Children’s Home and Aid Society, both in the field and as assistant superintendant. In 1906 parlayed this combination of direct care and executive experience to serve as superintendent of the girls division of Philadelphia’s House of Refuge.

In this position she created a model for transforming institutions for delinquent, displaced, and homeless young women, which were virtual prisons, to institutions base on rehabilitation and that focused on teaching responsibility and self-reliance.

During World War I she took a leave of absence from the House of Refuge to work with delinquent girls who prostituted themselves to military training camps, establishing programs that served as models for similar ones established during World War II.

After resigning from the House of Refuge in 1919 Falconer held several positions at reform institutions in New York, and after she retired she was appointed as a delegate to the International Conference of Social Work in Paris. She traveled often, both at home and abroad, to serve as a consultant to various institutions for delinquent girls and women.

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Lugenia Burns Hope

Born this day in 1871: Lugenia Burns Hope (1871–1947), social reformer and community organizer whose methods became a model for the Civil Rights Movement

Hope was born Lugenia Burns in St. Louis, Missouri. In the 1880s her family moved to Chicago, and from a young age she became active in the city’s settlement house movement. She performed social work at both the Kings Daughters and Hull House settlements. She also went to school, attending the Chicago Art Institute, the Chicago School of Design, and Chicago Business College.

In 1897 she married John Hope, and the couple moved to Tennessee, where her husband taught at Roger Williams University. The following year they moved to Atlanta. John began teaching at Atlanta Baptist College (later Morehouse College), eventually becoming its president. The couple had two sons. Lugenia Hope continued her social work in Atlanta, turning her attention to the crumbling black neighborhoods of the city.

Hope is most remembered for her tireless efforts with the Neighborhood Union, which she cofounded in 1908. She served as its president from its founding to 1935. The grassroots efforts she directed became a model for community organizing during the Civil Rights Movement. Volunteers canvassed black neighborhoods to learn directly from members of the community what their most pressing needs were. As a result, the Neighborhood Union oversaw employment, health education, medical, and dental programs; worked toward improving schools; and provided recreational opportunities. It also helped purge neighborhoods of vices such as gambling and prostitution.

During World War I the union worked on behalf of Atlanta’s YWCA to provide recreation services to African American soldiers, who were otherwise denied USO and other services. Hope’s success in this effort led her to organize a similar effort nationwide that provided services and counseling to African American and Jewish soldiers. Hope challenged the white domination and racial discrimination of service clubs and other reform organizations, especially through the establishment of Atlanta’s branch of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. She was also the first vice president of Atlanta’s chapter of the NAACP. In this role she established citizenship schools. These six-week courses educated African Americans on voting, democracy, and the role of government.

Hope moved to New York City after her husband’s death in 1936. There she worked with Mary McLeod Bethune, who was then director of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration, a New Deal agency. She continued working with the NAACP and was also involved in anti-lynching campaigns and other reforms.

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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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