A Women's History Month Tribute To Courageous Black Women

Claudette Colvin

Ruby Bridges Goes To School

Elizabeth Eckford

Fannie Lou Hamer

Angela Y. Davis

Maggie Lena Walker - Women's History Month

MAGGIE LENA WALKER

The story of the life and work of Mrs. Maggie Lena

Walker of Richmond constitutes a chapter in the progress

and development of the race, which should be read and

studied by every aspiring boy and girl in the South. It is

a story of struggle and shows to a rare degree the qualities

of faith, courage and enthusiasm, even in the face of diffi-

culties, and withal a fine disregard for such traditions and

precedents as threatened to hamper or discourage her.

To say that Mrs. Walker has done a man's work, merely

because she has done a number of things usually done by

men, is not a fair statement of the case. Rather she has

done her own work in her own way. One does not have to

know her long, to learn that she loves her work and enjoys

the arduous tasks which her success has brought with it.

It is her life. Her thinking, her plannig, and her actions

are direct, straightforward, and constructive. This is true

in her church work, her business operations, and her social

relations. It is one of the secrets of her success. When

she wants a thing she goes after it in the most direct and

logical way and gets results. She is free from the hesi-

tancy and variableness with which her sex is sometimes

charged. Another quality which has contributed much to

her success is her splendid executive ability. Neither in

the office nor in the field, does she permit herself to be in-

volved in details which others can handle as well. She has

the happy faculty of putting others to work and of inspir-

ing them with her confidence and enthusiasm. This does

not mean that she spares herself, for all her life she has

been a hard worker, but she works at the center where her

efforts count for most and passes the details on to others.

Mrs. Walker is a native of Richmond, where she was

born. Her maiden name was Mitchell and her mother was

Elizabeth Mitchell, who was a daughter of Frederick and

Peggy Draper.

As a girl, Mrs. Walker attended the Richmond public

schools and passed from the grades into the high school,

from which she was graduated in 1888. The way was not

easy. Her mother was a widow and had other children to

support, so that it was necessary for our subject to make

her own way, as well as contribute something to the support

of the family, but the girl never faltered.

After her graduation she began teaching in the local

schools and remained in that work till her marriage.

On Sept. 14, 1890, she was married to Mr. Armistead

Walker, Jr., of Richmond, a son of Armistead and Mary A.

Walker. After her marriage, the school board dispensed

with her services, as was the rule. Two children were born

to Mr. and Mrs. Walker: Russell E. T. and Meilvin DeWitte

Walker. Mr. Walker passed away on June 20, 1915.

Mrs. Walker took a commercial course and soon found

steady and remunerative employment. In 1889, she was

made Executive Secretary of the Independent Order of St.

Luke. She had the wisdom to see the possibclities of the

order and the ability to organize and push the work.

The records of the order tell the story of her splendid

work. When she took charge there were a thousand mem-

bers, now (1920) there are a hundred thousand in the

twelve hundred and forty-five local lodges for adults and

the nearly six hundred lodges for the juniors.

With the growth in fiannces, she was not slow to see

the advantages arising from a bank in connection with the

order. Accordingly, the St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank was

organized in the fall of 1902, with Mrs. Walker as Presi-

dent. She was at that time the only woman bank presi-

dent in the United States, and rem.ains one of the very few.

The bank has taken its place in the financial and commer-

cial life of the city, and is in a prosperous condition, as

shown by its official statement.

With the growth of the order in members and resources,

there was also the need of headquarters or general offices,

and a building for this purpose was accordingly erected.

Today there stands on St. James Street, Richmond, a mod-

ern hundred thousand dollar office and business building,

which is itself a monument to Mrs. Walker's zeal and enthu-

siasm as well as good business sense.

She has done a great deal of outside organization work.

She is a forceful and entertaining speaker and her voice has

been heard frequently at race conferences and other meet-

ings, not onlly in Virginia, but in every part of the country.

She is a prominent and active member of the First Baptist

Church, and has for a long time been a teacher in the Sun-

day School.

Mrs. Walker is President of the Council of Colored

Women, which has a membership of 1,400. She is a Trus-

tee of the National Training School for Girls and the Dou-

glas Home, both at Washington, D. C. She is also a Trus-

tee of the Industrial Training Home at Peake, Va., and the

Negro Organization Society of Virginia.

Among the secret orders and benevolent societies, she is

identified with the I.^O. of St. Luke, Eastern Star, House-

hold of Ruth, Ideal Shepherds, the Southern Aid, and the

Richmond Benefit Association.

During the war she was a leader in the various drives

and campaigns and the St. Luke's Building was the center

of war activities for the race in Richmond.

Notwithstanding all these activities, this remarkable

woman finds time for considerable reading and has occa-

sionally taken up a correspondence course in order to keep

up with the times.

She advocates no short cuts to success, but believes that

progress must rest on such old-fashioned virtues as thrift,

frugality, union, loyalty, confidence, and co-operation. She

is herself a living exampde of what these things will accom-

plish in the life of an individual.

(excerpt)

History of the American Negro and his institutions; (1917)

Caldwell, Arthur Bunyan, 1873-

 A modern tribute to Maggie Walker may be found at; The NPS website.

 To the credit of Ms Walker and those officers who followed her the bank lasted over 100 years before it became necessary to sell it. see Oldest Black bank sold.

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller - Women's History Month

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller

Meta Warrick Fuller was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 9,

1877. For four years she attended the Pennsylvania School of Industrial

Art, and it was at this institution that she first began to force

serious recognition of her talent. Before very long she began to be

known as a sculptor of the horrible, one of her first original pieces

being a head of Medusa, with a hanging jaw, beads of gore, and eyes

starting from their sockets. At her graduation in 1898 she won a prize

for metal work by a crucifix upon which hung the figure of Christ in

agony, and she also won honorable mention for her work in modeling. In a

post-graduate year she won a much coveted prize in modeling. In 1899

Meta Warrick (then best known by her full name, Meta Vaux Warrick) went

to Paris, where she worked and studied three years. Her work brought her

in contact with many other artists, among them Augustus St. Gaudens, the

sculptor of the Robert Gould Shaw Monument at the head of Boston Common.

Then there came a day when by appointment the young woman went to see

Auguste Rodin, who after years of struggle and dispraise had finally won

recognition as the foremost sculptor in France if not in the world. The

great man glanced one after another at the pieces that were presented to

him, without very evident interest. At length, thrilled by the figure

in "Silent Sorrow," sometimes referred to as "Man Eating His Heart Out,"

Rodin beamed upon the young woman and said, "Mademoiselle, you _are_ a

sculptor; you have the sense of form." With encouragement from such a

source the young artist worked with renewed vigor, looking forward to

the time when something that she had produced should win a place in the

Salon, the great national gallery in Paris. "The Wretched," one of the

artist's masterpieces, was exhibited here in 1903, and along with it

went "The Impenitent Thief." This latter production was demolished in

1904, after meeting with various unhappy accidents. In the form as

presented, however, the thief, heroic in size, hung on the cross torn by

anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic, and even defiant, he still possessed

some admirable qualities of strength, and he has remained one of the

sculptor's most powerful conceptions. In "The Wretched" seven figures

greet the eye. Each represents a different form of human anguish. An old

man, worn by hunger and disease, waits for death. A mother yearns for

the loved ones she has lost. A man bowed by shame fears to look upon his

fellow-creatures. A sick child suffers from some hereditary taint. A

youth is in despair, and a woman is crazed by sorrow. Over all is the

Philosopher who suffers perhaps more keenly than the others as he views

the misery around them, and who, powerless to relieve it, also sinks

into despair.

Sorrow

Other early productions were similarly characterized by a strongly

romantic quality. "Silent Sorrow" has already been remarked in passing.

In this a man, worn and gaunt and in despair, is represented as leaning

over and actually eating out his own heart. "Man Carrying Dead Body" is

in similar vein. The sculptor is moved by the thought of one who will be

spurred on by the impulse of duty to the performance of some task not

only unpleasant but even loathsome. She shows a man bearing across his

shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain on the

battlefield for days. The thing is horrible, and the man totters under

the great weight; but he forces his way onward until he can give it

decent burial. Another early production was based on the ancient Greek

story of Oedipus. This story was somewhat as follows: Oedipus was the

son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. At his birth an

oracle foretold that the father Laius would be killed by his son. The

child was sent away to be killed by exposure, but in course of time was

saved and afterwards adopted by the King of Corinth. When he was grown,

being warned by an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his

mother, he left home. On his journey he met Laius and slew him in the

course of an altercation. Later, by solving the riddle of the sphinx, he

freed Thebes from distress, was made king of the city, and married

Jocasta. Eventually the terrible truth of the relationship became known

to all. Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore out his eyes. The

sculptor portrays the hero of the old legend at the very moment that he

is thus trying to punish himself for his crime. There is nothing

delicate or pretty about all such work as this. It is grewsome in fact,

and horrible; but it is also strong and intense and vital. Its merit was

at once recognized by the French, and it gave Meta Warrick a recognized

place among the sculptors of America.

Water Boy

On her return to America the artist resumed her studies at the School of

Industrial Art, winning in 1904 the Battles first prize for pottery. In

1907 she produced a series of tableaux representing the advance of the

Negro for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, and in 1913 a group

for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission. In 1909 she

became the wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, Massachusetts.

A fire in 1910 unfortunately destroyed some of her most valuable pieces

while they were in storage in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of her

early work, that happened to be elsewhere, were saved. The artist was

undaunted, however, and by May, 1914, she had sufficiently recovered

from the blow to be able to hold at her home a public exhibition of her

work.

Talking Skull

After this fire a new note crept into the work of Meta Warrick Fuller.

This was doubtless due not so much to the fire itself as to the larger

conception of life that now came to the sculptor with the new duties of

marriage and motherhood. From this time forth it was not so much the

romantic as the social note that was emphasized. Representative of the

new influence was the second model of the group for the Emancipation

Proclamation Commission. A recently emancipated Negro youth and maiden

stand beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has what looks almost

like a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pushing them forth

into the world while at the same time the hand of Destiny is restraining

them in the full exercise of their freedom. "Immigrant in America" is in

somewhat similar vein. An American woman, the mother of one strong

healthy child, is shown welcoming to the land of plenty the foreigner,

the mother of several poorly nourished children. Closely related in

subject is the smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal," in which a mother

capable of producing and caring for three sturdy children is shown as

making a quiet demand for the suffrage and for any other privileges to

which a human being is entitled. All of these productions are clear cut,

straightforward, and dignified.

Bisque Head

In May, 1917, Meta Warrick Fuller took second prize in a competition

under the auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of the Woman's Peace

Party, her subject being "Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War." War is

personified as on a mighty steed and trampling to death numberless human

beings. In one hand he holds a spear on which he has transfixed the head

of one of his victims. As he goes on his masterful career Peace meets

him and commands him to cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in

gray-green wax and was a production of most unusual spirit.

Among other prominent titles are "Watching for Dawn," a conception of

remarkable beauty and yearning, and "Mother and Child." An early

production somewhat detached from other pieces is a head of John the

Baptist. This is one of the most haunting creations of Mrs. Fuller. In

it she was especially successful in the infinite yearning and pathos

that she somehow managed to give to the eyes of the seer. It bears the

unmistakable stamp of power.

In this whole review of this sculptor's work we have indicated only the

chief titles. She is an indefatigable worker and has produced numerous

smaller pieces, many of these being naturally for commercial purposes.

As has been remarked, while her work was at first romantic and often

even horrible, in recent years she has been interested rather in social

themes. There are those, however, who hope that she will not utterly

forsake the field in which she first became distinguished. Through the

sternness of her early work speaks the very tragedy of the Negro race.

In any case it is pleasant to record that the foremost sculptor of the

race is not only an artist of rank but also a woman who knows and

appreciates in the highest possible manner the virtues and the beauties

of the home.