" Eufrosina Hinard" (January 2 1772-1866?)

Slave owner, was born in New Orleans,Louisiana, to a freed slave and a white man (their names are unknown). She never experienced slavery herself,and her life as a slave-owning African-American woman was far removed from thr common experience of most African Americans in North America.This anomaly can be explained in part by the political and social turbulence of early New Orleans.By the time Euffrosina was Forty-two,she lived under French,Spanish, and American rule.In 1791 at the age of fourteen,she was placeed (committed) to the white Spaniard colonial Don

Nicolas Vidal, the auditor de guerra, the Spanish colonial governor.In this 

lofty position,Don provided military and legal counsel for both Louisiana and West Florida. Both the Spanish and the French legislated against racial intermarriage as way of maintaining pure white blood, this legislation did not stop from cohabitating with African American women.Many French and Spanish military military officials sent to help govern the territory would take bi-racial mistresses during their time in Louisana.Because these unions continued to occur in opposition to the law, and extralegal institution called placage developed to provide some formality, as well as some economic and social advantages for the African-American women.

The placage system that brought Don and Eufrosina together developed out of slavery. Many white men freed female slaves after having sex relations with them.especially if children  had resulated.Some of these women encouraged their daughters to also cohabitate with white men. As the system became established,,placage realtionships usually occurred between rich whites and free African-American, who emerged as an 

"upper class" within their communities. Free African-American women usually referred white men wishing to enter into this type of realtionship to one of the girl's parents (usually the mama)  who asked for certain concessions. Once both parties came to an agreement,a ceremony often took place, and then the formal relationship commenced.

While this system developed out of oppression, Eufrosina and other free African-American women did benefit from it in certain ways.In new Orleans' racially stratified society,incre9ased whiteness brought more social status and relative financial security for oneself and one's children.

While it certain that many women were forced into these realtionships,some most certainly chose placage (and its possible benefits) over marriage to a free African-American man.Any benefits were tenuous because the placage system was never legally binding.Whether  coerced or voluntary in the beginning,it seems quite possible that Don & Eufrosina had genuinely realtionship.The couple had at least two children who grew to adulthood during their fifteen years together: Merecedes (Merced) Vidal and Caroline Maria Vidal.

In 1800 Spain secretly transferred Louisiana back to the French.With in three years Napoleon decided to sell Louisiana to the United States.This 

decision affected Don and Eufrosina greatly. They decided to move to Spanish Florida rather than remain in Louisiana under American rule.

Florida would not become American territory until 1819.

When DON DIED IN 1806, Although he had previously sired another child while stationed in South America ( through another placage relationship),

he left his estate to Eufrosina and their daughters.This was an extremely 

unusual act and one that would have been illegal had they stayed in New Orleans.Their daughter Merced later saused an international stir by petitoning President Andrew Jackson to help her recover her deceased daddy's document. Andrew requested these documents from the Spanish Floridian government, and when he did not received the documents.

After Don's death, Eufrosina exhibited considerable business acumen by buying a brick-making business and acquiring a number of slaves. (She owned thirteen by 1840.) Where there is no written record of Eufrosina's 

throughts about slavery, she proably maintained views more akin to Spanish sentiments than those associated with English North Americans,

allowing her slaves to buy their freedom at a fair market price.Even after 

the Florida colonial government had outlawed the practice of self-purchase, she continued to buy slaves and hire them out until they could turn a profit for her; free them, and subsequently buy more slaves. In 

Eufrosina case,slavery seems to have remained primarily a source of labor.Historian Virginia Gould has demonstrated that free African American women in Gulf Cost cities distinguished themselves from the race-based empathy toward slaves. African American slave owners on the Gulf Coast such as Eufrosina's actions directly opposed the increasingly prevalent idea in the American South that slaves had no right to freedom;

Eufrosina behavior also contradicts gender and racial solidarity theories of some contemporary historians. Eufrosina's life clearly demonstrates the complexity of slavery and freedom in and around the Gulf Coast at the turn of the dawn of the nineteenth century.

 

"Ann Cole Lowe"(December 14,1898-February 25,1981)

 Was the first  African American to become a noted fashion designer.Her one-of-a-kind designs were a favorite among high society matrons from the 1920s to the 1960s.Ann was known for designing the ivory silk taffeta wedding dress worn by Jacqueline Bouvier when she married John F Kennedy in 1953.Ann was born in in rural Clayton, Alabama.She was the great granddaughter of an enslaved woman and an Alabama plantation owner.Ann had an older sister,Sallie.Ann attended school in Alabama until she dropped out at the age of 14.Ann interst in fashion,sewing and designing came from her mama Janey and grandma Georgia,both of whom were seamstresses.They ran a dressmaking business that was often frequented by the first families of  Montgomery and other members of high society.Her mama died when she was 16.At this time,Ann took over the family business.Ann was married twice and had two children.She married her first husband Lee Cohen,in 1912. They had a son, Arthur Lee,who later worked as her busines partner until his death from a car accident in 1958.Lee left Ann because he opposed her having a career.She married for a second time, to Caleb West,that marriage also ended.Ann later said,"My second husband left me. He said he wanted a real wife,not one who was forever jumping out of the bed to sketch dresses.Ann later adopted a daughter, Ruth Alexander. In the 1930s, lived in an apartment on Manhattan Avenue in Harlem. Her older sister Sallie later lived with her. Both were members of St.Mark's United Methodist Church.

In 1917, Ann and her son moved to New York City,where she enrolled at S.T. Taylor Design School.As the school was segregated,she was required to attend classes in a room alone.Segregation did not stop her,and still managed to rise above her peers in school.Her work was often shown to her white peers in recognition of her outstanding artistry,and she was eligible for graduation after attending school for only half a year. After graduating in 1919,she and her son moved to Tampa Florida.The following year,

she opened her first dress salon.The salon catered to members of high society and quickly became a success.Having  saved $20,000 from her earnings,Ann returned to New York City in 1928.During the 1950's and 1960's,she worked on commission for stores such as Henri Bendel,Montaldo's, I Magnin,

Chez Sonia,Neiman Marcus,& Saks Fifth Avenue.In 1946, she designed the dress that Olivia de wore to accept the Academy Award for Best Actress for To Each His Own,although the name on the dress was Sonia Rosenburg.

As she was not getting credit for her work,Ann and Arthur Lee opened a second salon,Ann Lowe's Gowns,in New York City on Lexington Avenue in 1950.Her one-of-a-kind designs made from the finest fabrics were an immediate success and attracted many wealthy, high society clients.Design elements for which she was known include fine hardwork, signature flowers, and  trapunto technique.Ann signature designs are what helped her eventually become recognized for her work.In 1964,the Saturday Evening Post later called Ann "society's best kept secret" and in 1966,Ebony magazine referred to her as "The Dean of  American Designers. Throughout her career, Ann was known for being highly selective in choosing her clientele. She later describe herself as "an awful  snob", adding: ''love my clothes and i'm particular about who wears them. I am not interested in sewing for cafe society or social climbers. I do not care for Mary & Sue I sew for the families of the Social Register.Over the course of her career,Ann created designs for several generations of the Auchincloss,Rockefeller,Roosevelt,Lodge,Du Pont,Post,Bouvier,Whitney,and Biddle families.She created dresses for many notable African American clients as well, including Elizabeth Mance who was a well known pianist at the time,and Idella Kohke, a member of  the Negro Actors Guild.

In 1953,Janet Lee Auchincloss hired Ann to design a wedding dress for daughter, the future First Lady Jacquenline Bouvier,and the dresses for her bridal attendants for September wedding to then-

Senator John fitzgerald Kennedy.Janet Lee Auchincloss also chose Ann to design her own wedding dress for her marriage to Hugh Dudley Auchincloss in 1942. Ann's dress for Janet consisted of fifty yards of "Ivory silk taffeta with interwoven bands of  tucking forming the bodice and similar tucking in large circular designs swept around the skirt.During the creation of this infamous dress,Ann's studio flooded just 10 days before the wedding.She and her team worked tirelessly to recreate the dres.Ann never mentioned this incident to the family and had to pay for any additional costs herself.

The dress cost $500 (approximately $5,000 today),was described in detail in The New York Time's  coverage of the wedding. While the Bouvier-Kennedy wedding was a highly publicized event,Ann did not receive public credit for her work until after the assassination of  John F.Kennedy.

Throughout her career,Ann continued to work for wealthy clientele who often talked her out of charging hundreds of dollars for her designs.After paying her staff,she often failed to make a profit on her designs. Ann later admitted that at the height of her career,she was virtually broke.In 1961 she received the Couturier of the Year award in 1962,she lost her salon in New York City after failing to pay taxes.That same year,her right eye was removed due to to glaucoma.While she was recuperating, an anonymous paid for Ann's debts which enable her to work again.In 1963 she declared bankruptcy.Soon after,she developed a cataract in her left eye; surgery saved her eye.In 1968,she opened a new store,Ann Originals, on Madison Avenue.Ann retired in 1972.

In the last five years of her life,Ann lived with her daughter Ruth in Queens.She died at her daghter's home after an extended illness.Her funeral was held at St.Mark's United Methodist Church in March.

"Lillian-Harris Dean "Pig Foot Mary" (1870-1929)

Entrepreneur in the food service and real estates arenas,was born in the Mississippi Delta.She migrated to New York and became a highly successful
entrepreneur who catered to the culinary tastes of other displaced African-American southerns living in Harlem.She took the name Pig Feet Mary because she turned marketing traditional foods such as pigs' feet,hog maws,
chitterlings (chitlins),and other foods into a thriving business.Through she did not attain the fame or millionaire status of  Madam C.J.Walker,Lillian was an early example of African-American entrepreneurial success in the post-Civil War era.

She began by selling food in 1901 on 60th Street sidewalk out of  a makeshift 
cart- actually,re-purposed baby carriage- at the corner of West 135th Street (Which now Malcolm X Boulevard).In time,she was able to afford a 
steam table booth,which she attached to the corner newsstand -and she married the newsstands owner,John Dean.Her biography is summed up in these two paragraphs by prominent African-American journalist Roi Ottley,
writing in 1943:


...[Most Negroes] earned money the hard way.there was,for instance,Pig Feet 
Mary,huge and deep voiced,who had trained her migrant customers to Harlem Early in the fall of 1901,she drifted into New York from the Mississippi Delta penniless,and within a week after her arrival set up a business in front 
of a San Juan Hill saloon.Mary,whose real name was Lillian Harris,after earning five dollars as a domestic,spent three for a dilapidated baby carriage and a large wash-boiler,and invested the balance in pigs' feet.Hot pigs' feet showed an immediate profit.From early until late at night,swathed in starched checked gingham,she remained at this stand for sixteen years.
Beyond two cotton dresses,her worldly goods were a mounting bank account.
Mary was saving enough money,she often said,to purchase a place for herself 
in an oldfolks' home for respectable colored people.Concern about her old age 
vanished when she moved to Harlem,opened her business at 135th Street on
Lenox Avenue,and three weeks later married John Dean,owner of an adjoining newsstands.

She paid $ 42,000 for a five-story apartment house at the corner of Seventh Avenue and One Hundred and Thirty-seventh Street.Later she sold it to the Y.W.C.A. for dormitory purposes.Mary retired in California,where she died.

"Freddie-Mae-Gautier,Hurd" (July 15,1930-December 14,2001)

Civil rights activists,political  advisor,businesswoman,and mentorwas auguably the most politically influential African American woman in Seattle in the latter half of the twentieth century.Born in Seattle General General  Hospital.She never knew her birth parents.When she was eight months,old Freddie G.Hurd, a bakery, owner,and his wife,Minnie Purnell Hurd, adopted her.Her birth certificate listed her as white,Freddie identified herself as a "Negro" woman.

Freddie attended the Seattle Junior

"Ella-Nora-Phillips-Stewart"(March 6,1893-November 27,1987)

Was one of the first African-American female pharmacists in the United States.

She was born in Stringtown,a small village near Berryville,in Clark County,Virginia,the oldest of the four children of Henry H.Phillips & Eliza T.(Carr) Phillips.Her parents were sharecroppers.When she was six Ella
was sent to live with her paternal grand mama in Berryville,to attend grade school.An outstanding student,she graduated at the top of her grade school class,and won several major scholarships to what was then the Storer Normal School (later,Storer College),in nearby Harper Ferry,West Virginia,Ella entered Storer at the age of 12.

Ella withdrew from the teacher training program at Storer in order to marry Charles Myers,was a  classmate there. They moved to Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania.After their only child Virginia,died of whopping cough at the age   of three,they divorced.

In Pittsburgh  Ella began working in a local pharmacy as a bookkeeper,
and her job sparked in her an interest in becoming a pharmacist.Despite
the challenges she faced both as a woman and as an African American,
she gained admittance to the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy in 1914.Ella completed her degree in pharmaceutical chemistry (Ph.C.) in 1916,becoming the first African American to graduate from Pitt's pharmacy program.In the same year,Ella passed the state examination becoming the first African American woman pharmacist in the state of Pennsylvania and one of the first African American women pharmacists in the country.

Ella initially worked as an assistant pharmacist for the Mendelsson Drug
Company,owned by two classmates from the University of Pittsburgh.
she later went on to own and operate a drugstore at the General Hospotial in Braddock,Pennsylvania.In 1918 she moved back to Pittsburgh where she again established her own business,Myers Pharmacy.

In 1920,she married William Wyatt Stewart,a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh,and a fellow pharmacist in Pittsburgh and  a fellow alumnus

of the Pitt Pharmacy program.The couple settled in Youngstown, Ohio,
where,Ella was hired as a pharmacist at at the Youngstown City Hospital.After some time,she and her husband moved to Detriot,where
they stayed only briefly;in 1922,they decided  to move to Toledo,Ohio to
open their pharmacy.

Ella & William opened Stewarts' Pharmacy,located at the corner of Indiana & Park Avenues (566 Indiana Avenue),in Toledo,in July 1922,and operated it until 1945,when they sold the business.Located in
Toledo's Pinewood district,where some two thirds of the city's African American lived by the end of the 1920s,the pharmacy became a popular
neighborhood gathering place.The Stewarts,who owned the building and lived in the spacious eight rooms above the pharmacy,often vistors from out of town,including luminaries such as Marian Anderson,Mary McLeod Bethune,and W.E.B.Du Bois.

By the 1930s Ella became a leading member of community groups in Toledo,including the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) and the Enterprise Charity Club,a  social-service organization run by African-American women.From 1944-1948 she served as president of  the Ohio Association of Colored Women;and from 1948-1952,as president of the
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs(NACWC).As leader of      the  NACWC,Ella spoke out against segregation,discrimination,and   racist stereotypes.

In 1961 she became an inaugural member of the Toledo Board of Community Realtions,which worked to improve race relations in the city,and to ensure enforcement of civil rights legislation.

Ella civic activities ecentually took on an international dimension: In 1952 she was appointed as an American delegate to the International Conference of  Women of the World,held in Athens Greece.She subsequently spent time during the 1950s touring as a goodwill ambassador the United States;in 1954 on one such U.S. State Department tour took her to several nations in Southeast Asia.In 1963
she was appointed to the United States commission of the United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Ella spent the rest of her life in Toledo,remaining as avolunteer and philanthropist.Her husband died in 1976 at 86,and she moved into a retirement home a few years later,in 1980.

"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.

"Marie-Therese-Coincoin Metoyer (1742?-1820)

Slave,agriculturalist, and head of a dynasty, was probably born in Natchitoches, Louisiana,what

was then the border between Spanish Texas and French Louisiana,it is possible that she was born in Africa and came to Louisiana as a young child.Her name definitely originated in Africa,no convincing argument has been made that traces it to one particular location.She was baptized in 1742 as the slave of Louis Juchereau de St.Denis, the founder of Natchitoches which was the first permanent  settlement in Louisiana.In 1756 she was inherited  by the widow of St. Denis,and then became the property of  the widow's son Pierre Antoine de St. Denis Jr., in 1758,ending up the slave of the de Soto family.Between 1761 & 1766 she had three African-American children Don Manuel, Francoise, and Jean Joseph.In 1767 a white French merchant, CLaude Thomas Pierre Metoyer,known as Pierre,arrived  in Natchiitoches and  Marie was loaned to him by her owner.They quickly entered into a relationship.Between 1768 & 1784 they had ten children including Augustin Metoyer & Louis Metoyer.Realtionships between African-American and white men were semi-authorized,given  a customary rather than legal status,the Louisianan system of placage,in which white men provided for free women of color in return for sexual favors.A white living openly with an African-American slave as a common-law wife in a shared household was more,unusual,and aroused the disapproval of the Catholic Church.In 1777 Father Luis de Quintanilla,the local priest,complained to local authorities about their relationship.While this caused a  scandal at the time,the intervention of caused Madame de Soto,and then Pierre's purchase and manumission of Marie in 1778,eased the situation.The children that Marie bore Pierre when enslaved remained the property of her owner,and between 1776 & 1780 Pierre set about buying his enslaved from the de soto family.

Marie,Pierre,and their children lived together for the next decade.This was a period of financial and familial stability,Marie's three oldest children remained enslaved.As well as occupying herself  with her children,Marie was probably in charge of running the plantation the household, and given that Pierre was one of the wealthiest men in Natchitoches Parish,she probably had enslaved servants to undertake the the heavier housework,and had very little or no contact with agricultural work.

However,this phase of Marie's life was soon to end.In 1786 Pierre succumbed to pressure to marry a suitable white French woman,and his relationship with Marie ended.It was apparently an amicable split,,as upon her departure  from their household,he gave her  a plot of land  close to his plantation on the Cane River,South of  Natchitoches,an an annuity of  120 piasters.Here,Marie  now at least forty and the mama of thirteen children,finally became completely independent.She built a house,and earned a living through agriculture.In 1793 Marie petitioned for and was granted more land by the Spanish government.It seems likely that she undertook the cultivation of tobacco and  indigo on these plots,both requiring intense production and skilled processing,
though her later purchase in 1807 of three sheep suggest she was also raising animals.Those amongst her children who were born after her liberation and were therefore free accompanied her,
and she welcomed other family members into her home.Tradition has it that Marie was knowledgeable about native medicinal plants, and she may also have been involved in bear trapping for skins and grease.Archaeological excavations at the location of her home reveal a quantity    of pots made locally by Native Americans,which were associated with the bear oil trade.

Initially,Marie must have undertaken most of  the work at the plantation herself,as she is not recorded   in the 1787 Slave Census as owning any slaves,and at the time the free children who accompanied her were just ten,four,and two.Her other children with Pierre were still owned by him (although he eventually liberated them all), her oldest children, born before her relationship with Pierre, were still enslaved, as were the other close members of her family.In 1790 Marie began the process of remedying this situation through loaning her daughter Thereze and Thereze's
son Joseph from their (and former) owner. She bought them in 1797,by which time she had bought and freed Catiche,the illegitimate daughter of her son Louis Metoyer in 1794,who was already living in her household. In 1795, she bought and presumably freed, her own sister Marie Louise.

As well as buying family members to liberate them,Marie also bought slaves to work the land she owned.In the 1795 Slave Census she is recorded as owning five slaves and by,by 1816 when she divided her property amongst her children,she had twelve slaves,six women and six men.These slaves- Jean Baptiste,Harry,Marguerite,,Marie Jenne, Constance,Louis,Froisine, and Hilaire- appear in earlier  records,so we can trace some family ties between them. Oral tradition in the Cane River Creole community has it that Marie was a good owner who never hit her slaves,we can't  be certain of this,the presence of family groups and equal numbers of men and women suggest that the slave community at her plantation was settled and stable.

As well as dividing her slaves amongst her children in 1816,she also sold her main plot of land on
the Cane River to a white neighbor. Her decision may have been influenced by her closest neighbor, Nicholas Doclas,who sold his plantation and died that year. Marie and Nicholas were at one time two of only a handful of free people of African descent in Natchitoches Parish, and lived next to each other for fourteen years. Traditional accounts report that she moved to live with her son Louis at his nearby plantation,it is probable that she moved to another community of free
African Americans,as she appears in the 180 census living with another free woman of color aged over forty-five, nda free man of color aged over forty-five. She may of course have moved in with Louis at his large plantation home at a later date,whenshe must have been extremwly old. There is no record of the date or location of herdeath,it is presumed that it must have been fairly after 1820.

"Nannie-Helen-Burroughs"(May 2,1878-May 20,1961)

Was an African American educator,orator,relgious leader,civil rights activists,feminist,and businesswoman in the United States.She gained national recognition for her  1900 speech "How the Sisters Are Hindered
from Helping," at the  National Baptist  Convention.

On October 19,1909,she founded the  National Training for Women & Girls in Washington,D.C., which uniquely
provided academic, religious,vocational classes
for African American girls and young
women at a time when education was
segregated  in the South;she operated
it until her death.It has since been renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor and provides coeducational classes for the elementary grades.Its Trades Hall,built in 1927-28, has been designated as a  National Historic Landmark.She was born in Orange,Virginia.her parents were John & Jennie Burroughs attended  the Richmond Institute and became a Baptist Preacher.He was a farmer
and serve as an itinerant preacher.Her mama worked as a a cook before and after the Civil War.
In 1883,Jennie moved with her Nannie,then five,to Washington D.C. so
that Nannie could be educated in its city schools.Nannie parents were
associated with a small and fortunate class of free African Americans and ex-slaves who possessed  the energy and ability to begin working
towards prosperity almost as soon as they were freed by the civil war.

After the Civil War,African-Americans congregations had quickly withdrawn from white-dominated churches in the South to create churches independent of white supervision.They had a few before the war,but soon had many more.Within several years,they were setting up
state Baptists associations and, by the end of the 19th century,national
associations as the African Methodist Episcopal Church planted new
congregations among African Americans communities in the South.

In 1896,Nannie helped establish the National Association of Colored Women (NACW),one of a number new associations of African American
women organized for philanthropic and charitable purposes.In 1897,she
started work as an associate editor at the Christian Banner in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania.

In 1898 Nannie moved to Louisville Kentucky for a position as a bookkeeper and editorial  secretary for the Foreign Mission Board
of the National Baptist Convention,where she serve until 1909.This was
the national association of black Baptists churches.In 1902 she studied
business.In 1907,she received an honorary A.M.degree from Eckstein-Norton University,a historically African-American college in Cane Spring,Bullitt County,Kentucky.
In 1909,she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington,D.C. The school emphasized preparing students for employment.Nannie  offered courses in domestic science and secretarial
skills,also in unconventional occupations such as shoe repair,barbering,
and gardening.Nannie created a creed of racial self-help through her
program of the three Bs:the Bible,the bath,and the broom stood for for a clean body, and a clean house. Nannie was one of the first honorary
members to be inducted into Delta Sigma Theta,an African American sorority.

She belived domestic work should be professionalized and vocational.
Nannie trained  her students to become self-sufficient wage earners and
expert homemakers.She emphasized the importance of being proud African American women domestic work should be professional  and vocational.She trained her students to become self-sufficient wage and
expert homemakers.She emphasized the importance of being proud African-American women to all students,by teaching African-American history  and culture through a required course in the Department of  Negro history.
Nannie became active in the National League of Republician Colored
women,trying to influence the national party on behalf of African Americans.She also participated in the National Association of Wage
Earners,working to influence legislation related to wages for domestic
workers and other positions held by women.

She gained prominent supporters for her school; for instance,pastor Adam Clayton Powell,who led the large and influential Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City,was on board of trustees of the National Training School.He helped raise funds for construction in 1927-1928 of its Trades Hall building,which in 1991 was designated as a
National Historic Landmark.In 1934,the school  was renamed  the  National  Trades and Professional School  for Women.The School  was inactive for a time during the Great Depression Nannie revived,and it has operated to present day.

In 1928,the  Herbert Hoover administration appointed Nannie as committee chairwoman related to Negro Housing,for his 1931 White House Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership.This was held soon after the Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression.

Nannie died in Washington,D.C., on May 20,1961,of natural causes.The funeral was held at the  Nineteenth Street Baptist Church where she was a member.

"Carol-Robinson-Jones {February 15,1942-July 2001}

Born in Benton Harbor Michigan.A graduate of the University of Michigan,she got her Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in English and Science.She created the Caroline R.Jones  Dean's Merit Scholarship there and serve on the Visiting Committee for the College of Literature,Science and the Arts.Her throughts and instincts carried her a long way when she began her career in 1963 as a Secretary-Copywriter  Trainee at J.Walter Thompson Company (JWT).Within weeks,Caroline was promoted to the creative director of their largest account.Soon after Caroline to junior writer.For more than five years,she was the voice of reason behind a series of national campaigns.Caroline helped write " 100 years of  Advertising: The Walter Thompson Story" special issue of Advertising Age.

Her advertising campaigns were a collective blend of sophistication and soul.For than 30 years,Caroline was on the cutting edge,generating upbeat and charismatic campaigns.Caroline remarkable creativity inspired many women and people of color to seek careers in advertising and marketing.Prior to starting Caroline Jones Incorporated,she was a founder,Executive Vice President,and Creative Director of Mingo-Jones.There she brought her experience as Vice President and Creative Group Head and was the first African American woman ever elected Vice President of a major advertising agency.She was also vice president and co-creative director at Zebra Associates.Caroline contributions to the business were widespread.In addition to the creative reputation she enjoyed,she was often a speaker and lecturer.


Her associations included the Committee of 200,International Women's Forum,advertising Woman New York and the Boards of the New York City Partnership,Eureka Communities,The Advertising Council and the VCU Ad Center,Richmond Virginia.A former Advertising Woman of the Year,she produced some of the most unforgettable campaigns in advertising history.Her presence in the advertising community motivated larger agencies to re-examine the manner in which they market to African-Americans and people of color.

Caroline died of cancer in New York.

"Christine-Moore-Howell" (March 19,1899-December 13,1972)

Christine was the daughter of entrepreneur William & Mary Adelaide William Moore,both natives of  Hillsboro,North Carolina.She had one sister,Bessie,and two brothers-Arthur C. & Willie.At some point William Moore,who was known as " Sport," moved to Princeton,New Jersey,and became a successful owner of a secondhand store located in three buildings on Spring Street.Students from Princeton University sold their clothes to him to earn enough money to finance their trips to New York City.In his business William also sold furniture and antiques,while Adelaide tended to the home and children.It was at this site that Christine would operate a beauty shop business and laboratory for twenty-eight years.


Christine was the first African American to graduate from Princeton High School.In 1919 she received a diploma from De Laurenberg's in Princeton.For professional study in beauty culture,she attended Warren's Institute in Pittsburgh,Knock's School of Beauty Culture in Philadelphia,and Nestlé's in New York City.She went abroad for further training and studied at Sidonia Institute in Paris. While there she also made a shop-to-shop study of beauty salons.Returning to the United States, she had special laboratory training in New Brunswick,under under the tutelage of chemist Louis Du Bois.She opened two unique businesses that became highly successful Christine's Beauty Salon,a skin care laboratory known as Christine Moore Corporation.Her modern laboratory,which she began to operate in 1936,adjoined her beauty salon,and she hired a capable chemist to manufacture the products that she needed.These included products for good grooming as well as those required for beauty culture work.She also conducted research in laboratory and aided in producing hair preparation and cosmetics for African Americans.Her line of cosmetics became known as Christine Cosmetics.Such products that were suitable for white clientele evolved and were sold mail order throughout the world.Altogether the laboratory manufactured eleven hair-care and beauty products.


Only highly trained,creative staff members who were skilled in the art of  enchancing womanhood regardless of race were hired in her salon.She had some middle-class African-American customers,her shop had great appeal to those on the white and African American social registers,many of whom were limousine driven customers.


For a while,African American customers were few in number,due to the fact that Christine's shop did not straighten hair as many African American women required.The shop specialized in permanent waves.In time,African American customers grew in number as Christine began to master permanent wave and offered more creativity in hair designs than she did when the shop first opened.Her laboratory developed a formula processing agent for African American hair,removing the curly appearance of characteristic of some type of  African American hair.


Her experiences as a beauty culturist,researcher,and businesswoman inspired Christine to write Beauty Culture and Care of the Hair,published in 1936.A textbook,the work was used in public vocational schools as well as private beauty schools.Christine helped to improve standards for beauty culture throughout the state of New Jersey.Having become familiar with her reputation,in 1935 Governor Harold G.Hoffman appointed her to the first New Jersey Board of Beauty Culture Control.The board,which she had created rules,and regulations for beauty shops and beauty culture training;issued licenses; and planned and moitored examinations that were given three times a week at the state department located in Newark.All beauty salons,whether white or African American owned and operated,were subject to board examinations.


The appointment came at a time when race relations in New Jersey were poor.The idea of appointing an African-American to a new powerful board aroused considerable protest among whites. As well,membership was extremely limited,with space for only five persons;people petitioned hard to gain one of the posts;and it was unthinkable to give one of those to a black.Quoted in Ebony magazine,Christine recalled:"The white people were  enraged because I,a Negro had gained the post.Ugly articles appeared in the Trenton Times." Christine dissuaded her friends from responsding to the attacks.She wanted to handle the matter her way,and she was determined to meet her board  responsibility to the best of her ability.This approach would allow her to "win the respect of those who felt the color of my skin disqualified me," she added.


Her work on the Board of Beauty Culture Control became a matter of record.After her initial appointment as acommissioner,she was reappointed three years later and altogether served on the board for fourteen years,from 1935-1949.Christine was elected chair of the commission and served four terms,a position that paid $3,200 as well as expenses.While serving as commissioner,Christine assisted New York and other states as they set up beauty culture departments.


The site of her business on Spring Sttreet in Princeton,New Jersey,is shown as the Christine Moore Corporation in Princeton High School's online publication PULSE.It is also one of Princeton's historic landmarks.She operated her business from the 1920s- 1940s.


In 1924 she married Edward Gaylord Howell,a native of New Haven,Connecticut,and a physician who devoted considerable time to study and treatment of alcoholism.He had had a medical practice in Princeton with a virtually all-white clientele.The Howells lived in New Brunswick,New Jersey,at some point reported had a residence both in Princeton and in New Brunswick.Their residence was a mecca for interracial activity,whether social or civic.Christine was a member of the New Brunswick Urban League,Princeton Group Arts,Inc.,NAACP,and the Links,Inc.

"Mary-Washington" (April 21,1906-July 14,2005)

Born in Vicksburgh Mississippi,Mary Thelma Morrison was the daughter of Daisy &

William Morrison,a carpenter,who boasted to friends that his young daughter could read the entire newspaper.When she was 6,her mama died,and she went to Chicago to live with her maternal grandparents.She attended Wendell Philllips High School,where she excelled in math.After graduating from High School,Mary took a position at Binga State Bank,one of only a few African-American owned banks in the 1920s.Arthur Wilson,the banks president and Mary's supervisor,took note of her bookkeeping skills and encouraged her to pursue her business degree.Arthur himself was an accomplished CPA,having the notable distinction of being only the second African-American in the United States to earn his CPA in 1923.

When she attended Northwestern University's School of Chicago Business in the late 1930s,Mary found that she was the only woman in the program,and certainly the only African American female student.Being light-skinned,she was easily accepted as white,as Mary's daughter,Barbara Shepherd,a retired Chicago Public School teacher,explained.Mary began building her tax-season clientele in 1939,and focused on serving the community of small African American-owned businesses in her area.One of early and long-time clients was Samuel B.Fuller,a self-made millionaire and owner of the cosmetics company Fuller Products Company.Samuel came to rely heavily on Mary's services and advice,and later leased some of his businesses office space to her to accommodate her growing business.Mary earned her degree in 1941 and was able to serve her apprenticeship with Arthur Wilson.When she sat for the CPA licensing exam,again,and she was the only woman in the room.

In 1943 she became the nation's 13th African-American CPA,and the first female of the group to attain her license,Mary became a leader for future generations of accounts.The firm she she began in her basement on the South Side of Chicago in 1939,known to day as Washington,Pittman & Mckeever,remains one of the largest African-American owned firms in the nation.As time went by,Mary fostered the development of Young African-American CPAs who needed to serve apprenticeships to earn their CPA licenses.Hiring was typically done through references from friends and associates.Frederick Ford,currently the vice chairman of the board at Draper & Kramer,the Chicago-based real estate firm,came to Mary looking to serve his apprenticeship in 1949."None of the big CPA firms would hire African-American,Ms.Washington offered to let me come and work.She really opened the way for a number of blacks CPAs," Since 1921 (University of North Carolina Press,2002,),aspiring young accounts would move across the country to have the opportunity to work for Ms.Washington.As a result of her generosity,by the late 1960s,Chicago was recognized as having the largest number of African-Americans CPAs of any in the nation,most of who served the city's significant African-American community.

In Chicago's tight-knit African-American accounting community of the 1950s & 1960s,Mary was certainly a leading figure,having been associated with nearly every African American CPA through one channel for another.To draw the community more closely together,Mary threw annual holiday parties at her home,inviting her own employees and the rest of the city's achieving African American CPAs to the event as well as clients,many of whom remained lifelong friends and professional admirers.Lester Mckeever,Washington,Pittman,& Mckeever's current managing partner and principal and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,came to work for Ms.Washington part-time during the busy tax season,and while away from the army.When he was called back,Ms.Washington petitioned for his early release from service,was denied.And when his time in the Army  was up,he returned to work at the firm full-time;it came to be known by today's name in 1976.


Thanks to Ms.Washington long-time leadership the firm she established and that Lester continues to uphold,now audits some of the largest accounts in the area;it is a joint auditor for the City of  Chicago and Cook County,for example,audits several area universities,including Chicago State University and Western Illinois University,and handles the employee benefit plans for electric utility company Commonwealth Edison and printer RR Donnelly.

"Mattie-Bost-Bell-Castner" (1848-1920)

She deservedly earned the title of the Mother of Belt,for-Mattie opened

the Castner Hotel,around the town which grew.Mattie ran a dinning room whose reputation for hospitality,elegance,and excellence spread across the Territory.Mattie Castner's generosity was rivaled by her exquisite cooking. She soon became the owner of a successful laundry.At Fort Benton she met John Castner a young white,Pennsylvania freighter who ran several mule teams for the Missouri River terminus.John had scouted the country and filed mineral claims along Belt Creek,east of the Great Falls.Mattie married John in 1879 and settled in a log cabin at the Belt Creek ford.Mattie made two trips to North Carolina to try and find her relatives who hadn't been sold.She found a sister and brought her and her family back to Montana.On her second trip back the elder brought back her 13 year-old niece and namesake Mattie Byers.The younger graduated from 8th grade in Belt Montana.In 1911J.L.and Mattie moved their family to Great Falls where they felt their children would have a better education.

For forty years the Castners pursued separate commercial endeavors,while offering hospitalityand support to the people in the Belt area.

Her generosity became legend.Mattie kindness flourshed unchecked.

 

"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.