"Gertrude Elise Mcdougald Ayers"(1884-1971)

Was the first black woman to have a full-time principalship in a New York City public school after desegregation of the school system.(Sarah Garnet was the first black woman principal in 1863, in a black school.)Gertrude was strongly committed to the education and training of African-Americans.She wrote a number of articles relating to gender and racial inequality,and a chapter on women in Alan Locke's The New Negro,the seminal work on the Harlem Renaissance.A native of New York City,her father was a physicial there.She attended New York Training School for Teachers from 1903 to 1905 and also studied at Hunter College,Columbia Universirt,College of the City public school,but she worked with the Urban League,servedas head of the Woman's Department in the Harlem bureau of the U.S. Labor Department Employment Bureau and headed the initiation of the counseling department in 1924.She remained she remained in this position for three years.After her 1936 appointment as a full-time principal, Gertrude she retained that position until her retirement in 1954,being transferred from the first appointment to a second public school in 1945.She never earned a college degree.Her teaching philosophy,which combined academic learning with practical knowledge,served her well.