Anita Florence Hemmings
Anita Florence Hemmings | |
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| Born | June 8, 1872 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | 1960 (aged 87–88) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Vassar College |
| Occupation | Librarian |
| Spouse(s) | Andrew Love (m. 1903) |
| Children | 3 |
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| African Americans |
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Anita Florence Hemmings (June 8, 1872 – 1960) was known as the first Bi-racial woman to graduate from Vassar College.[1] After graduation she became a librarian at the Boston Public Library.
She married a doctor, also of African-American and European ancestry, and they both passed as white as adults, for socioeconomic benefits. They did not tell their children about their biracial ancestry.
Personal life[]
Anita Hemmings was born June 8, 1872, in Boston to Dora Logan (maiden; 1856–1941) and Robert Williamson Hemmings, Sr. (1843–1908). Anita was raised as an Episcopalian. After attending local schools, she was admitted to Vassar College, which she had dreamed of attending since she was a child. She is believed to have been the first African American to graduate from Vassar.
After graduation, she became a librarian in Boston.
Siblings[]
- Elizabeth "Libby" N. Hemings (born 1876), married Walter Gilbert Alexander, MD (1880–1953), on May 3, 1904, in Boston. They later divorced.
- Frederick John Hemmings (né Frederic Henderson Hemmings; 1873–1956), earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from MIT in 1897.[2]
- Robert Williamson Hemmings, Jr. (born 1882), studied art and in 1903 won a bronze medal and scholarship from the Eric Pape School of Art for a black-and-white sketch. He had graduated June 26, 1899, from the Sherwin School, a high school for African Americans in Roxbury.[3]
Husband[]
Anita married Andrew Love, MD (né Andrew Jackson Love; 1861–1948), on October 20, 1903, in Boston at Trinity Church. Their marriage license indicates their race as African American.
About thirteen years earlier, in 1890, Love earned a medical degree from the Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College in Nashville,[4] a historically black college distinguished for having the first medical school in the South for African Americans.[5] Dr. Love did post-graduate studies at Harvard Medical School in the summer of 1905.[6][7]
Like some other Black Americans of mixed ancestry, especially at the time, as adults Anita Hemmings and her husband passed as white for socioeconomic benefit. They did not inform their children of their biracial ancestry.[8][6][9]
Children[]
- Ellen Parker Love (1905–1995), a 1927 graduate of Vassar. On June 6, 1934, in Manhattan, she married Charles Beckinton Atkin (1906–1987).
- Barbara Hope Love (1907–2007). On June 9, 1930, in Manhattan, she married William Adair Hurt (1907–1965). They later divorced.
- Andrew Jackson Love, Jr. (1911–1982), jazz musician. He attended the Horace Mann School until around 1937, then transferred to the Mount Herman School in Northfield, Massachusetts, graduating around 1930.[10] He studied pre-med at the University of Wisconsin for two years (1930 and 1931), then devoted himself to music and became an acclaimed jazz vocalist. He was a founder of the jazz trio, the Tune Twisters. Around 1939 it recorded a nationally popular jingle for Pepsi; this was an innovation in broadcast advertising considered one of the first of its kind.
Secondary and higher education[]
Anita Hemmings attended preparation school at Girls' High School in Boston and Northfield, where she had been roommates with Elizabeth Baker (maiden; 1868–1943), who, on September 23, 1896, married William Henry Lewis (1868–1949).
Fulfilling a childhood dream,[11] Anita attended Vassar, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897. Based on her appearance and visible European ancestry, she was apparently assumed to be white. About the time she graduated, a Boston newspaper reported that Fred J. Hemmings, an African American, had graduated from MIT, and he had a sister at Vassar. Her story came out.
Later, rumors circulated that she should have been valedictorian, but they were false. Some said that Anita was the most attractive woman in her class. Classmates believed that she may have had 'Indian blood', as she was darker skinned than some girls and had straight black hair. She sang soprano in the glee club and was the featured soloist at the local churches in Poughkeepsie.[12]
In 1997, Vassar African-American studies students petitioned college president Frances D. Fergusson to recognize Anita Hemmings at that year's centennial celebration. Writing about it in Vassar Quarterly, Olivia Mancini, a local journalist, said this recognition "brought [Hemmings’] graduation and presence to a level of honor that it should have had a hundred years ago." Vassar has acknowledged Anita Hemmings as the first African American to graduate the college, and noted that for almost all of her college career, she was thought to be white.
In popular culture[]
In November 2017, it was announced that Zendaya will produce and star in a biopic of Hemmings' life titled A White Lie, based on the 2016 novel The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe. This explores Hemmings' life in a fictional way.[11] Reese Witherspoon will also produce the project and Monica Beletsky will write the script. TriStar Pictures will distribute the film.
See also[]
Biographies of other multi-racial people
Film
- Multi-Facial, 1995 film
Filmmakers
Literature
- Passing, 1929 novel
- The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, 1912 fictional novel
Terminology
- Tragic mulatto
- Multiracial
- Melungeon
References[]
- ^ "Dark, But Beautiful: Colored Girl Went Through Exclusive Vassar College – Her Secret Not Guessed Until After Graduation, and She Got Her Diploma – She Hailed From Boston," Boston Globe, Vol. 52, No. 47. August 16, 1897, p. 1 (accessible via Newspapers.com, subscription required)Note: The offensive tenor of the headline ("Black, But Beautiful ... ") and vernacular of article is a noteworthy window into the bigotry of journalism of the era, and white society itself. The Boston Globe was a major voice in North America; i.e., one that reflected perceived social norms, and one of myriad possible seemingly authoritative influences that showered Ms. Hemmings. The author likely thought that they were generously lauding Ms. Hemmings for possessing (i) beauty deemed, in the day, as exceptional by whites and (ii) the upbringing, academic preparation, and intellectual tenacity to excel in an exclusive institution of higher education – something that was rare, especially for women. The bigotry exhibited in the article perhaps highlights the trickiness of values and aspirations harbored by Ms. Hemmings in the face of polar trade-offs – especially given that attending Vassar College had been a childhood dream, a dream elevated into reality with encouragement from another influential woman.(because this Boston Globe citation overtly supports the prior statement, perhaps no citation is needed: Sep 2019)
- ^ "Frederick John Hemmings". MIT Black History. Retrieved March 28, 2019.
- ^ "Music and Art," The Crisis, Vol. 8, No. 3, July 1914, p. 111
- ^ Medical and Surgical Register of the United States (4th ed., rev.), R.L. Polk & Co. (1896); "Love, Andrew J. (R) 302, '90" (302 is the code for Meharry Medical Department, Central Tennessee College; see p. 127); '90" p. 1385
- ^ Twenty-Ninth Annual Catalogue and Quadrennial Year Book, Central Tennessee College, 1894–1895, p. 54
- ^ a b Mancini, Olivia (2002). "Passing as White: Anita Hemmings 1897". Vassar, the Alumnae/i Quarterly. Vol. 98, no. 1. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
- ^ Against all Odds: The Legacy of Students of African Descent at Harvard Medical School Before Affirmative Action, 1850–1968, by Nora Nouritza Nercessian, "African-American Health Community in Boston in the Early 20th Century," Appendix C: "Postgraduate Students of African Descent at Harvard Medical School 1873–1968" Harvard Medical School, publisher, 2004, pps. 280 & 287; OCLC 645834943 )
- ^ Sim, Jillian A. (née Jillian Clare Atkin; born 1969) (March 1999). "Fading To White". American Heritage. Vol. 50, no. 1. Archived from the original on March 28, 2019. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
- ^ Haynes, Monica L. (October 26, 2003). "Passing: How posing as white became a choice for many black Americans". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
- ^ The Gilded Years, by Karin Tanabe, Simon and Schuster (2016); OCLC 983203647
- ^ a b "Hiding from One's True Self" (book review of The Gilded Age), by Terri Schlichenmeyer, Washington Informer, July 14, 2016 (accessible via ProQuest 1806088789, subscription required)
- ^ "Passing For White". Panache Report. Retrieved April 30, 2015.
- ^ Lukasik, Gail (October 17, 2017). White Like Her: My Family's Story of Race and Racial Passing. Skyhorse. ISBN 978-1-51072-412-9.
External links[]
- Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's Who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company.
- Sim, Jillian A. (March 1999). "Fading To White". American Heritage. Vol. 50, no. 1.
- Leads, Abbie (November 30, 2011). "Re: (?Andrew) Jackson Love". Genealogy.com.
- American people of Creole descent
- African-American history
- American librarians
- American women librarians
- African-American librarians
- 20th-century African-American women
- 20th-century African-American people
- 19th-century American women
- Vassar College alumni
- 1872 births
- 1943 deaths
- 20th-century American people