Phillis Wheatley Peters, also spelled Phyllis and Wheatly was an American author who is considered the first African-American author of a published book of poetry. Born in West Africa, she was kidnapped and subsequently sold into slavery at the age of seven or eight and transported to North America, where she was bought by the Wheatley family of Boston. After she learned to read and write, they encouraged her poetry when they saw her talent.
Wheatley Place is a neighborhood in South Dallas, Texas, that is designated as a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and as a somewhat smaller Dallas Landmark District by the city. Included among the buildings that compose the historic district is the Juanita J. Craft Civil Rights House, a museum that was the former home of Dallas civil rights pioneer, Juanita Craft. The house is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and is included within the NRHP district but not the municipal landmark district.
Dorothy Irene Height was an African-American civil rights and women's rights activist. She focused on the issues of African-American women, including unemployment, illiteracy, and voter awareness. Height is credited as the first leader in the civil rights movement to recognize inequality for women and African Americans as problems that should be considered as a whole. She was the president of the National Council of Negro Women for 40 years. Height's role in the "Big Six" civil rights movement was frequently ignored by the press due to sexism. In 1974, she was named to the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, which published the Belmont Report, a bioethics report in response to the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
Jane Edna Hunter, an African-American social worker, Hunter was born on the Woodburn Farm plantation near Pendleton, South Carolina. She was involved in the NAACP and NAACW. Jane Edna Hunter is widely Known for her work in 1911 when she established the Working Girls Association in Cleveland, Ohio, which later became the Phillis Wheatley Association of Cleveland.
The Phyllis Wheatley YWCA is a Young Women's Christian Association building in Washington, D.C., that was designed by architects Shroeder & Parish and was built in 1920. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The Boston Women's Heritage Trail is a series of walking tours in Boston, Massachusetts, leading past sites important to Boston women's history. The tours wind through several neighborhoods, including the Back Bay and Beacon Hill, commemorating women such as Abigail Adams, Amelia Earhart, and Phillis Wheatley. The guidebook includes seven walks and introduces more than 200 Boston women.
Mary Campbell Mossell Griffin was an American writer, clubwoman, and suffragist based in Philadelphia. She led successful efforts to pass Pennsylvania's anti-lynching law. She co-founded a summer camp with Anna J. Cooper. She wrote a 1915 text titled Afro-American Men and Women Who Count.
Mary Frances Gunner was an African American playwright and community leader based in Brooklyn, New York. She was also known as Francis Gunner Van Dunk.
Drusilla Elizabeth Tandy Nixon was a community activist and music educator in El Paso, Texas.
The Detroit Study Club is a Black women's literary organization formed in 1898 by African American women in Detroit, Michigan, who were dedicated to individual intellectual achievement and Black community social betterment. The Club emerged in the 1890s around the same time as numerous other Black women's clubs across the country. The original creators of the Detroit Study Club established the club to increase their knowledge about literature and social issues. They later extended that work into community welfare endeavors. In 2018, the group celebrated one-hundred-and-twenty continuous years of activity.
The Phillis Wheatley Clubs are women's clubs created by African Americans starting in the late 1800s. The first club was founded in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895. Some clubs are still active. The purpose of Phillis Wheatley Clubs varied from area to area, although most were involved in community and personal improvement. Some clubs helped in desegregation and voting rights efforts. The clubs were named after the poet Phillis Wheatley.
Maude E. Craig Sampson Williams was an American suffragist, teacher, civil rights leader, and community activist in El Paso, Texas. In June 1918, she formed the El Paso Negro Woman's Civic and Equal Franchise League and requested membership in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) through the Texas Equal Suffrage Association (TESA), but was denied. Williams organized African-American women to register and vote in the Texas Democratic Party primary in July 1918. She was one of the founders and a charter member of the El Paso chapter of the NAACP, which was the first chapter in the state of Texas. Williams served as the vice president of the El Paso chapter from 1917 to 1924 and remained active in the NAACP until her death. Williams played a significant role in the desegregation of Texas Western College in 1955, which was the first undergraduate college in Texas to be desegregated by a court order other than that of the Supreme Court of the United States. Midwestern University (now known as Midwestern State University was previously ordered to desegregate in 1954 by the SCOTUS immediately following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling.
Phyllis or Phillis is a feminine given name of Greek origin meaning foliage. Phyllis is a minor figure in Greek mythology who killed herself in despair when Demophon of Athens did not return to her and who was transformed into an almond tree by the gods. Phillida, Phyllicia, and Phyllida are all variants of the name.
Arsania M. Williams was an American educator and clubwoman based in St. Louis, Missouri. She taught for over fifty years in segregated schools, and was president of the Missouri State Association of Negro Teachers, the Missouri Association of Colored Women, and the St. Louis Association of Colored Women. She held national leadership roles in the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).
Amanda Gray Hilyer was an African American entrepreneur, pharmacist, civic worker, and civil rights activist. She was the first black woman to own and operate a pharmacy in Washington D.C.
Mill Creek Valley was a historic neighborhood located in the central corridor between 20th Street and Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. European settlement began in the 18th century with mills established along La Petite Rivière, now known as Mill Creek. It became an industrial and railroad center in the 19th century. Union Station was opened in 1894. The building was closed in 1978 and renovated for commercial use. Also a residential and commercial center, Mill Creek Valley was populated by German immigrants and African Americans, before and after the Civil War. More people moved into the area during World War II to support the war effort.
Louis LaBeaume was an American architect in the Beaux-Arts tradition. He practiced in St. Louis from 1904 until his retirement c. 1956. For over thirty years, from 1912 until 1944, he worked in partnership with architect Eugene S. Klein in the firm of LaBeaume & Klein. They had a prolific practice centered on St. Louis and their exceptional work was the combined Kiel Opera House and Kiel Auditorium, completed in 1934 and partially extant.
