"Jessie Redmon Fauset"{April 27,1882-April 30,1961}

Was born in Fredericksville,an all-black hamlet in Camden County,New Jersey,also known as Free Haven (now incorporated into the borough of Lawnside New Jersey).She was the daughter of Anna "Annie" Seamon and Redmond Fauset,a Presbyterian minister.Her mother died when she was still a young girl.Her father remarried Bella Huff (a white woman),and they had three children,including civil rights activist and folklorist Arthur Fauset (1899-1983).In 1900 she graduated with honors from the renowned Philadelphia High School for Girls and the only African American in her graduating class.Following her graduation,Jessie received a scholarship to attend Cornell University,and in 1905 made history again by becoming the first black woman accepted into the University chapter of Phi Beta Kappa,a prestigious academic honor society.She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in classical languages from Cornell University in 1909.Twenty years later she received a Master of Arts Degree in French from the University of Pennsylvania.In 1905,Jessie moved to Baltimore,Maryland to teach.That following year she relocated to Washington D.C. and began teaching French and Latin for several years at Dunbar High School.She resigned in 1919 and moved to New York to become the literary editor for The Crisis,the journal of the NAACP.In her post Jessie played a pivotal role in introducing the works of then unknown black writers such as Jean Toomer,Claude McKay,Countee Cullen,and Langston Hughes to the magazine's national audience.She was was an essayist,novelist,and poet as well.Her published works include There is Confusion (1924),Plum Bun (1928),The Chinaberry Tree(1931),and Comedy: American Style (1933). All of these writings focus on African American culture and economic struggles during that period.Although Jessie brought the work of younger artists to the public's attention during the Harlem Renaissance,she holds the distinction of being the most published novelist of that era.She left the Crisis in 1926 and returned to the classroom.Jessie taught at Dewitt Clinton High School in New York until her retirement in 1944.She married Hubert Harris,an insurance broker,in 1929 when she was 47.They remained married until his death in 1958.She died from heart failure.