Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste
Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste | |
---|---|
![]() 1902 | |
Born | Chicago, Illinois | November 24, 1867
Died | April 20, 1951 Chicago, Illinois | (aged 83)
Nationality | American |
Other names | Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste Faulkner, Georgia M. Faulkner, Georgia DeBaptiste Faulkner Ashburn, Georgia DeBaptiste Carr |
Occupation(s) | teacher, journalist, social worker |
Years active | 1890–1943 |
Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste (November 24, 1867 – April 20, 1951) was an African-American journalist, teacher and social worker from Chicago. After completing her education, she taught at various notable black schools before becoming the first woman of African descent to be employed at the Chicago Post Office.
With her first husband, she did missionary work in Liberia and taught at Liberia College. After his death, she lived in New York and performed social works at a local settlement house before remarrying and moving to Virginia. She taught briefly in Virginia and then returned to Chicago, where she remained for the rest of her life involved in professional community services.
Early life
Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste was born on November 24, 1867, in Chicago to Georgianna Brischo and Richard H. DeBaptiste.[1][2] She was the youngest child and only daughter of three siblings.[3][4] Her mother died when she was six and she was raised by her father, a noted writer and preacher.
As a youth, she joined her father's congregation, Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago. She attended elementary school in Chicago, took music courses at the Chicago Musical College and began her high school education at South Division High School, but during her schooling, her father moved to Evanston, Illinois.[1][5]
She completed her high schooling at Evanston Township High School,[6][5] and then went on to further her education at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.[5]
Career
With the move to Evanston, DeBaptiste began writing. Her first works were published in The Baptist Herald. After two years, the publication folded and she began writing for The Baptist Headlight, The African Mission and became a regular contributor to Our Women and Children.[7]
She began her career in education working as a personal assistant to William J. Simmons at the State University in Louisville, Kentucky. When DeBaptiste left State University, she taught music for a year at Selma University. Though her contract was renewed, she did not like the climate in Selma, Alabama[8] and instead accepted a post as the assistant language and music instructor at Lincoln Institute of Jefferson City, Missouri, working under Inman E. Page.[9][8] She reluctantly took a position at the Western College and Industrial Institute in Macon, Missouri.[8]
DeBaptiste returned to Chicago and worked for five years as a postal clerk, which she continued even after her marriage[10][11] on June 20, 1899, to Dr. Henry Clay Faulkner.[12] She was the first woman of the African diaspora to be employed as a clerk by the Chicago Post Office.[13] The couple still living in Chicago in 1902, when DeBaptiste was elected as one of the commissioners at a conference held on August 6–11 to discuss problems and progress black Americans had made,[14] but soon thereafter, they were sent by the Baptist Foreign Missions Board to Liberia.[15] Dr. Faulkner served as a physician and druggist in Monrovia and DeBaptiste was an instructor at the Liberia College. While on a lecture tour in the United States and a visit with her mother-in-law, DeBaptiste learned in January, 1907 that her husband had died in Liberia the previous December.[13]
In 1908, DeBaptiste settled in Brooklyn and continued with speaking engagements and working as a pianist at various functions.[16][17] The following year, she had been hired as the head worker at the Lincoln Settlement House and continued with both lecturing, music instruction and performances.[18] In 1910, a widowed DeBaptiste was living with her brother Richard, Jr., who was a music teacher, and her son Frederick Faulkner (born 1906) in Brooklyn.[19] Over the next several years, she continued with her settlement house work, music and lecturing,[20][21][22] before marrying Walter Raleigh Ashburn in Manhattan on June 16, 1915.[2]
Ashburn was the pastor of the Mount Zion Baptist Church of Evanston and in the year of her marriage DeBaptiste became the first president of the Women's Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.[10] Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to Virginia, where Ashburn began pastoring at the Cool Springs First Baptist Church of Franklin, Virginia, and DeBaptiste became the general agent of The Ashburn Brothers Shirt Manufacturing Company in Lynchburg.[23] It is probable that during this time, was when she taught at the normal school of Clifton Forge Normal and Industrial Institute and the Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg.[10]
DeBaptiste was re-elected to that presidency of the Women's Auxiliary in 1917 and by that time, was living in Chicago[5][24] and she and Ashburn had apparently separated. [10] His biographer notes that the couple separated for unspecified reasons and he remarried his fourth wife before his death in 1939.[25] She joined the Bahá'í Faith in 1918, (and still active as one decades on.)[26] From then forward, DeBaptiste worked as a professional doing community work. She served as a social worker and organizer in the Butler Community and was the superintendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church-sponsored Home for Business and Working Young Women in the 1920s.[10] In 1922, she was one of the captains of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) drive in Chicago to boost membership.[27] In 1923, she was re-elected again for the top post of the Women's Auxiliary.[28]
The following decade, she supervised the Youth's Conservation Council and School's education department. Very active in clubs and organizations, DeBaptiste was president of the District Teacher's Association of Chicago and the Mother's Union. She was involved with the NAACP, the Urban League, the YWCA and the World's Fellowship of Faiths, as well as serving as president of the exclusive Old Settler's Club in 1943. Sometime prior to the announcement of the Old Settler's Club 111th anniversary exhibition, DeBaptiste married a man surnamed Carr.[10]
Death and legacy
DeBaptiste died on April 20, 1951, aged 83, in Chicago and was buried in the Lincoln Cemetery in Worth, Illinois.[29]
References
Citations
- ^ a b Penn 1891, p. 386.
- ^ a b New York City Marriage Records 1915.
- ^ Penn 1891, p. 264.
- ^ U.S. Census 1870, p. 196.
- ^ a b c d Johns 1996, p. 165.
- ^ Scruggs 1893, p. 354.
- ^ Penn 1891, p. 388.
- ^ a b c Scruggs 1893, p. 355.
- ^ Majors 1893, p. 297.
- ^ a b c d e f Johns 1996, p. 166.
- ^ U.S. Census 1900, p. 7-B.
- ^ Cook County Marriages 1899.
- ^ a b The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1907, p. 3.
- ^ Penn & Bowen 1902, p. 622.
- ^ Jordan n.d., p. 3.
- ^ The New York Age 1908, p. 1.
- ^ The Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1908, p. 11.
- ^ The New York Age 1909, p. 7.
- ^ U.S. Census 1910, p. 7-B.
- ^ The Indianapolis Recorder 1910, p. 2.
- ^ The New York Age 1910, p. 5.
- ^ The New York Age 1911, p. 7.
- ^ The Broad Ax 1915, p. 6.
- ^ The Nashville Globe 1917, p. 5.
- ^ Thomas 2016.
- ^ Christopher Buck (Dec 13, 2021). "The Baha'i 'Pupil of the Eye' metaphor". In Loni Bramson (ed.). The Bahá'í Faith and African American History: Creating Racial and Religious Diversity. Lexington Books. pp. 20–1. ISBN 978-1-4985-7003-9. OCLC 1098186570.
- ^ The Broad Ax 1922, p. 2.
- ^ The Buffalo American 1923, p. 4.
- ^ Cook County Deaths 1951.
Bibliography
- Johns, Robert L. (1996). "Georgia Mabel De Baptiste (1867-19??)". In Smith, Jessie Carney (ed.). Notable Black American Women. Vol. II. New York City, New York: Gale Research, Inc. pp. 165–167. ISBN 978-0-8103-9177-2.
- Jordan, L. G., ed. (n.d.). In our stead. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: National Baptist Convention of the United States of America. Foreign Mission Board. p. 3. OCLC 63666569.
- Majors, Monroe A. (1893). Noted Negro women, their triumphs and activities (Reprint 1971 by Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Donohue and Henneberry. ISBN 0-8369-8733-0.
- Penn, Irvine Garland (1891). The Afro-American press and its editors. Springfield, Massachusetts: Willey & Company. pp. 386–388. OCLC 503673564.
- Penn, Irvine Garland; Bowen, John Wesley Edward (1902). The united negro: his problems and his progress, containing the addresses and proceedings the Negro young people's Christian and educational congress, held August 6-11, 1902. Atlanta, Georgia: D. E. Luther Publishing Company. p. 622. OCLC 755239138.
- Scruggs, Lawson Andrew (1893). Women of Distinction: Remarkable in Works and Invincible in Character. Raleigh, North Carolina: L. A. Scruggs. OCLC 4255360.
- Thomas, James Jr. (February 29, 2016). "Black history exhibit in Suffolk shows cooperation between races". The Virginian-Pilot. Norfolk, Virginia. Archived from the original on April 4, 2016. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
- "1870 U. S. Census: Chicago, 5th Ward, Illinois". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. July 5, 1870. p. 196. NARA microfilm publication M593. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "1900 U. S. Census: Hyde Park, 34th Ward, Chicago". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. June 5, 1900. p. 7-B. NARA microfilm publication T623, Roll #289. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "1910 U. S. Census: Brooklyn, 20th Ward, New York". FamilySearch. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration. April 27, 1910. p. 7-B. NARA microfilm publication T624, Roll #970. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "Afro-American Notes". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. March 6, 1908. p. 11. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Brooklyn Republicans". The New York Age. New York City, New York. April 2, 1908. p. 3. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Cook County Deaths, 1878–1994". FamilySearch. Chicago, Illinois: Cook County Courthouse. April 20, 1951. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "Big Drive in Chicago by the National Association for the Advancement of the Colored People". Salt Lake City, Utah: The Broad Ax. April 29, 1922. p. 2. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920". FamilySearch. Chicago, Illinois: Cook County Courthouse. June 20, 1899. FHL microfilm #1030298, Reference ID 293496. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "Douglass Night in Brooklyn". The New York Age. New York City, New York. March 3, 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Elect Officers at Convention". Buffalo, New York: The Buffalo American. September 20, 1923. p. 4. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "New York City Marriage Records, 1829–1940". FamilySearch. New York, New York: New York City Municipal Archives. June 16, 1915. FHL microfilm #1614008, Reference ID cn13749. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
- "Obituary". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Brooklyn, New York. January 15, 1907. p. 3. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Prominent Women in the City". Nashville, Tennessee: The Nashville Globe. June 22, 1917. p. 5. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "(untitled)". The New York Age. New York City, New York. October 14, 1909. p. 7. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "(untitled)". The New York Age. New York City, New York. November 9, 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "(untitled)". Salt Lake City, Utah: The Broad Ax. October 2, 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 18 February 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
- "Young Amateur's First Appearance". The Indianapolis Recorder. Indianapolis, Indiana. January 1, 1910. p. 2. Retrieved 18 February 2017.
External links
Media related to Georgia Mabel DeBaptiste at Wikimedia Commons