Ophelia Settle Egypt
Ophelia Settle Egypt | |
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![]() E. Ophelia Settle, from the 1925 Howard University yearbook | |
Born | Ophelia Settle February 20, 1903 Clarksville, Texas |
Died | May 25, 1984 Washington, D.C. |
Occupation | Social worker, college educator, writer |
Ophelia Settle Egypt (February 20, 1903 – May 25, 1984), also known as E. Ophelia Settle, was a social worker and sociologist who conducted some of the first oral history interviews with formerly enslaved people.
Early life and education[]
Ophelia Settle was born near Clarksville, Texas in 1903, the daughter of Green Wilson Settle and Sara Garth Settle. Her father was a schoolteacher. Settle graduated from high school in Denver, Colorado in 1921, and from Howard University in 1925.[1][2][3]
She earned a master's degree in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1944, and pursued further studies at Columbia University School of Social Work.[4] She studied medicine and sociology at Washington University on a fellowship from the National Society for the Prevention of Blindness, but as a black woman she was considered a "special student",[5] and required to take lessons privately from a tutor.
Career[]
Settle taught in North Carolina during the year after she graduated from Howard University.[6] She was a researcher for the black sociologist Charles S. Johnson at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1928 to 1930.[7] Under Johnson, she conducted one hundred interviews[8] with elderly formerly enslaved people. Her interviews were part of Fisk University's publication “Unwritten History of Slavery: Autobiographical Accounts of Negro Ex-Slaves (Social Science Source Document No. 1).”[9] From 1933 to 1935, she was a caseworker in St. Louis, Missouri.[6]
In 1935, Settle became director of social services at Dillard University in Louisiana.[5] She taught social work at Howard University in the 1940s. In the 1950s, she was a probation officer and social worker in southeast Washington, D.C.[10] directed a home for black "unwed mothers", and in 1956 founded the area's first Planned Parenthood clinic.[11][12] In 1973, Egypt was a member of the D.C. Black Writers Workshop, and wrote a biography of James Weldon Johnson for young readers, published in 1974.[6][13] She corresponded with writer Langston Hughes, among other notable acquaintances. She gave an oral history interview in 1981 and 1982, to the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center.[6]
Personal life and legacy[]
Ophelia Settle married educator Ivory Lester Egypt in 1940. They had a son, Ivory Lester Jr., born in 1942.[6][14] The Parklands Planned Parenthood Clinic[15] was named for Egypt in 1981,[9] three years before she died from lung problems in Washington, D.C., aged 81 years.[12] The Ophelia Egypt Papers, including photographs and manuscripts, are archived in the manuscript division, Howard University Library.[6]
References[]
- ^ The Bison (Howard University 1925): 58. via Digital Howard
- ^ "Love is Urged as Life Guide for Graduates at Howard U." Evening Star. 1925-06-06. p. 26. Retrieved 2021-05-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Shaw, Stephanie J. (2010-01-15). What a Woman Ought to Be and to Do: Black Professional Women Workers during the Jim Crow Era. University of Chicago Press. pp. 231–232. ISBN 978-0-226-75130-6.
- ^ Barnes, Bart. "Ophelia Egypt, Author, Backed Birth Control". The Washington Post. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Social Worker". California Eagle. 1935-09-06. p. 18. Retrieved 2021-05-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Joellen El-Bashir, Finding aid for the Ophelia Egypt Papers, Manuscript Division, Howard University Library.
- ^ Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks (2001). The Harvard Guide to African-American History, Volume 1. ISBN 9780674002760. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ "Little-Known Black History Fact: Ophelia Settle Egypt". My Houston Majic. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Egypt, Ophelia Settle (1903-1984)". Social Welfare History Project, VCU Libraries. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- ^ "Ophelia Settle Egypt". NASW Foundation. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
- ^ Wells-Wilbon, R. (2015). "Family Planning for Low-Income African American Families: Contributions of Social Work Pioneer Ophelia Settle Egypt". Social Work. NIH. 60 (4): 335–42. doi:10.1093/sw/swv037. PMID 26489354.
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Obituary for Ophelia Settle (Aged 81)". The Baltimore Sun. 1984-06-02. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-05-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "World of Books". The Record. 1973-12-20. p. 37. Retrieved 2021-05-21 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Ivory Lester Egypt Jr., obituary, The Washington Post (July 8, 2015), via Legacy
- ^ Smith, Carrie J. "Egypt, Ophelia Settle". Encyclopedia of Social Work. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
- 1903 births
- 1984 deaths
- Columbia University School of Social Work alumni
- University of Pennsylvania alumni
- Social workers