Women of Achievement: Written for the Fireside SchoolsBrawley, Benjamin Griffith
History
Women of Achievement: Written for the Fireside Schools
Brawley, Benjamin Griffith
African American women -- Biography; Women -- Biography
In the professions, such as medicine and law, and in scholarship as
well, the Negro woman has blazed a path. One year after Oberlin College
in Ohio was founded in 1833, thirty years before the issuing of the
Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees took the advanced ground of
admitting Negro men and women on equal terms with other students. Of the
Northern colleges and universities Oberlin still leads in the number of
its Negro women graduates, but in recent years other such institutions
as Radcliffe, Wellesley, Columbia, and Chicago have been represented in
an increasing number by those who have finished their work creditably
and even with distinction in many instances. More and more each year are
young women at these institutions going forward to the attainment of the
higher scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine we recall the
work in the war of the Negro woman in the related profession of nursing.
It was only after considerable discussion that she was given a genuine
opportunity in Red Cross work, but she at once vindicated herself. In
the legal profession she has not only been admitted to practice in
various places, but has also been appointed to public office. It must be
understood that such positions as those just remarked are not secured
without a struggle, but all told they indicate that the race through its
womanhood is more and more taking part in the general life of the
country.
In keeping with the romantic quality of the race it was but natural that
from the first there should have been special effort at self-expression
in literature, music, and other forms of art. The first Negro woman to
strike the public imagination was Phillis Wheatley, who even as a young
girl wrote acceptable verse. Her _Poems on Various Subjects_ published
in 1773 at once attracted attention, and it was fitting that the first
Negro woman to become distinguished in America should be one of
outstanding piety and nobility of soul. Just a few years before the
Civil War Frances Ellen Watkins, better known as Mrs. F. E. W. Harper,
entered upon her career as a writer of popular poetry. At the present
time attention centers especially upon Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, who
early in 1918 produced in _The Heart of a Woman_ a little volume of
delicate and poignantly beautiful verse, and from whom greater and
greater things are expected, as she not only has the temperament of an
artist but has also undergone a period of severe training in her chosen
field. In the wider field of prose--including especially stories,
essays, and sketches--Mrs. Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson is prominent. In
1899 she produced _The Goodness of St. Rocque, and other stories_, and
since then has continued her good work in various ways. The whole field
of literature is a wide one, one naturally appealing to many of the
younger women, and one that with all its difficulties and lack of
financial return does offer some genuine reward to the candidate who is
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account