African-American politician and activist Anna Arnold Hedgeman was born July 5, 1899, in Marshalltown, Iowa, and was nurtured in a home by her parents and grandparents, all of whom were former slaves. She grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, where at breakfast prayers were said for the day. At night all of her family members reported on how they had been useful. "Useful" was the optimum word—useful to yourself and useful to life. In 1922, she became the first Black woman to graduate from St. Paul’s Hamline University. In 1936 she married Merritt A. Hedgeman, an interpreter and singer of Black folk music and opera. Hamline awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 1948.Hedgeman was a founder of the National Organization of Women and the first Black woman to serve on a mayoral cabinet in New York City. She is also credited with recruiting more than 40,000 Protestant churchmen to participate in the 1963 March on Washington. Dr. Hedgeman died on January 17, 1990, in Harlem Hospital. Today, her portrait hangs in The National Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Reference:
Dream A World: Portraits of Black women Who Changed America
Barbara Summers, editor
Photos and Interviews by Brian lanker
Workman Publishing, 1989