"Eartha-Mary-Magdalene-White"

A prominent African American millionaire and residence of Jacksonville,Florida,was widely know for humanitarian and philanthropic endeavors in the northern part of the state.

She managed several businesses including a dry,goods store,an employment and housecleaning bureau,a taxi company,and a steam laundry.

The mission was formally established in 1928 and named by Eartha in memory of her mama,Clara White.In 1932,during the severest days of the depression,Eartha recognized the need for a larger facility to feed,shelter,and counsel the homeless.

With the help of friends,she moved the mission into its present building on Ashely Street in downtown Jacksonville.Many notables figures such as James Weldon Johnson,Booker T.Washington,Mary McLeod Bethune,and Eleanor Roosevelt visited her at the mission.In 1904 Eartha and her mama Clara White,established the Clara White Mission which fed the homeless and hungry in the Jacksonville community.After mama's death in 1920,Eartha continued the work of the mission  which at one point was Jacksonville's largest employer of African Americans.

In 1944,a fire destroyed much of the building,but she raised the funding to rebuild and enlarge the original structure.In the ensuing years, the Mission served as a nucleus and often a starting point for many charitable and humanitarian services: Works Progress Administration office,orphanage,a home for unwed mama's and tuberculosis rest home.Earth lived on the second floor of the mission until her later years.

The mission,in addition to its many other social and civic services,it is still noted for being for being the only non-profit organization serving daily mid-day meals to the needy in Jacksonville.

Eartha is estimated that she became a millionaire.Managing several businesses including a dry goods store,an employment and houseclean bureau,a taxi company, and a steam laundry. 

She donated much of her wealth to finance her humanitarian work.

That work included creating the Oakland Park,the first public park in Jacksonville for African Americans; founding the Boy's Improvement Club;and establishing an Orphanage for African American children,a home for unwed mama's,and a nursery for children of working mamas.Eartha also worked with prison inmates and founded the Colored Citizens Protective League.

She was also a licensed real estate broker,the first woman employee of the Afro-American life Insurance Company in Jacksonville,and charter member of the National Negro Business League and the Jacksonville Business League.