"Julia-Pearl- Hughes" (Julia P.H.Coleman,Julia Coleman-Robinson) (March 19,1873-September 14,1950)

Pharmacist,entrepreneur,social activist,and business executive.Julia was the first Africa-America woman pharmacist to successfully own and operated her own drug store;much later,she was the first African America woman to run for elective office in  New York.

Julia was born in Melville Township,Alamance County,North Carolina near the city of  Mebane,North Carolina,the sixth of eight children of John & Mary (Moore) Hughes.

She was educated in local schools,and attended Scotia Seminary in Concord,North Carolina, (later Barber-Scotia College) from where she graduated in 1893.After teaching school a couple of years,she enrolled at "Pharmacetical College" (now the College of Pharmacy) of  Howard University; she graduated with the degree of  Pharm D. in 1897.

After graduation,Julia moved to Philadelphia,Pennsylvania,where she ran the pharmacy of the Frederick Douglass Hospital (later Mercy-Douglass Hospital) at 15th and Lombard streets while taking post-graduate work at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now the University of the Science).In 1899 she opened her own drug store at 937 Christian Street in South Philadelphia called the Hughes Pharmacy.Julia was the first Africa-America woman to have done so.A contemporary newspaper account states "With every prospect of success Miss Julia P.Hughes has opened an elegantly appointed establishment..and is already doing a profitable business.

On February 16,1900,Dr.Hughes married newspaper newspaperman James Harold Coleman,a native of  Richmond,Virginia, the couple moved to Newport News,Virginia where,for four years,she operated her own pharmacy.In 1912 James Coleman was employed as a "colonization agent" for African American settlers for a projected all- African American town in Chaves County,New Mexico,eighteen miles from Roswell,New Mexico called Blackdom.James went to New Mexico,while his wife moved to Washington,D.C. to live with her stepmama and other relatives;by 1916,the couple had divorced.There were no children.

By the time of her divorce,Dr.Julia P.H.Coleman had given up her her drug store and with timothy Thomas Fortune in March 1914 founded a weekly newspaper,the Washington Sun.

While working on the newspaper,she had been experimenting with various other ways of making a living,and had developed another career as a hairdresser. Being an experience chemist,she experimented with various concotions designed to grow and straighten kinky hair and eradicate dandruff; she also developed shampoos,soaps, powders and lotions.

In 1909,Dr.Coleman and her then-husband had formed the Columbia Chemical Company,whose purpose was to produce and market a hair preparation she called "Hair-Vim." The company was dissolved in September 1910. Then after returning to Washington,and with five dollars in her pocket,Dr.Coleman established the "Hair-Vim Chemical 643 Florida Avenue,N.W.,and then moved the business to her stepmama's home at 1234 U Street,N.W. in Washington, D.C.

Dr.Coleman's business venture was very successful.She was soon able to sell her newspaper venture was successful.She was soon to sell her newspaper venture and devote herself full-time to the production and sale of her hair lotions,soap,face creams,"con salves" and shampoos.In July 1916,she expanded the company's activities to nerby Baltimore,Maryland.

Althrough running well behind such leaders in the field as Madam C.J. Walker & Annie Turnbo Malone,Dr.Coleman was able,by shrewd marketing,to keep Hair-Vim in business for almost thirty years.She provided beauty parlors with free products and encouraged  the owners of the shops to use them on their clients.She also emulated Madam Walker & Mrs.Malone in developing "Beauty culture" schools promoting the "hair-Vim" way of doing hair.

On May 25,1918,Dr.Coleman decided to take a trip to Baltimore,Maryland via the Washington,Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway,but was forced to give up her seat in the first class because of her race.When she reached Baltimotr,she secured the services of local African American attorney W.Ashbie Hawkins and sued the railroad. She her case and was awarded damages totaling twenty dollars.


In 1919,according to the NAACP magazine The Crisis,she decided to "establish a branch (of the Hair Care Vim-Chemical Company) in New York City.She purchased a five story brownstone in Harlem at 118 West 130th street for $30,000 and moved the operations of the company there.This would be her home for nearly the rest of her life.


After settling in New York City,Dr.Coleman,along with overseeing the activities of her company,became active in many social progressive movements.She was a member of the National Medical Association,serving a time as the " pharmaceutical secretary." Julia also was active in the National Council of Negro Women,the NAACP and the local chapter of the National Urban League as well as several church groups and local civic groups.For example,in December 1927,she was elected president of the Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of  New York City;Julia was elected in part,as a contemporary newspaper account states,due to her successful tenure as "head of the business department of the State Federation of Women's Clubs.


In 1920,wth a number of African American leaders, including William Pickens,Chandler Owen,Robert Sengstacke,and John E.Nail,she signed a letter to Attroney General Harry Micajan Daugherty urging the vigorous prosecution of African American nationalist Marcus Garvey on charges of  Mail fraud.Marcus attacked them,call them "race trators" and singling out Dr.Coleman as "a hair straighter and a face bleacher.


Dr.Coleman also became involved in local politics,being affiliated with the Republican Party.In September 1924,she ran for the Republican Party nomination for the New York State Assembly from the Nineteenth District,stating that "she expects to arouse the colored eoman as never before to their political duty.Julia, lost the primary election to Abraham Grenthal, an attorney and the Republican party boss of the district.


On August 12,1930,in Washington,Dr.Coleman married Rev.John Wallace Robinson, pastor of St.Mark's Methodist Episcopal Church in Harlem and after his retirement,pastor of  Chris Community Church of Harlem,founded in 1935.They were married for eleven years,until Rev.John's death in November 1941.


After Rev. Robinson's death,Julia gradually withdrew from both the business and social worlds.She is is buried next to her second husband at Frederick Douglass Memorial Park on Staten Island,New York.