Eartha M. M. White
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Eartha Mary Magdalene White (November 8, 1876 - January 18, 1974) was an American humanitarian, philanthropist, and businesswoman.
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[edit] Early life
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, White was the 13th child of a former slave. She was adopted by Clara English White at a very young age and the two had an extremely loving relationship. It was from her mother's example that White sought to improve the condition of the poor and helpless people in Jacksonville.
In her youth, White attended schools in Florida and New York. In 1893, upon graduation from Stanton School in Jacksonville, she moved to New York City for a brief period in order to avoid a yellow fever quarantine. After high school she attended the Madam Hall Beauty School and the National Conservatory of Music. She also became an opera singer with the Oriental American Opera Company (the first African-American opera company), where she sang as a lyric soprano and traveled with the company throughout the United States and Europe. She returned to Florida in 1896, where she graduated from the Florida Baptist Academy.
[edit] Adult life
After graduation, White embarked on a sixteen-year teaching career in Bayard, Florida and later at Stanton School. She also became involved in political activities by participating in the Republican Party as well as beginning the Colored Citizens Protective League in Jacksonville. In 1941, she joined with A. Philip Randolph to protest job discrimination. She never married, lived frugally, and spent all her money on a wide range of philanthropic activities, including social work with prison inmates, an orphanage, a mother and baby home, a working women's childcare facility, homes for the aged, a boys' club and a mission for the poor, all of which, due to segregation, were directed primarily towards African-Americans.
It was through the Clara White Mission that Eartha White made her biggest impact on the Jacksonville community. Her mother began the establishment in the 1880s primarily as a soup kitchen to feed the needy. White later expanded on this idea and moved the Mission to its present location on Ashley Street in Downtown Jacksonville. Notably, the Mission is the only non-profit organization serving daily meals to the needy in the city. [1]
In 1970 she was awarded the Lane Bryant Award for Volunteer Service and was appointed to the President's National Center for Voluntary Action in 1971.
Eartha White died of heart failure at age ninety-seven on January 18, 1974.
[edit] Quotes
- "I never married. I was too busy - What man would put up with me running around the way I do?"
-According to Charles E. Bennett, author of Twelve On The River St. Johns
- "I've already decided I want it to serve humanity. What would I do with it? Sit around the Plaza Hotel? I'm too busy."
-After a reception at the White House with President Nixon, she quite characteristically responded to the question of how she would spend her cash reward
[edit] Collections
Eartha White's private collection of photographs and correspondence was split, after her death, between the Clara White Mission and the University of North Florida's Thomas G. Carpenter Library Special Collections. They are both allowed to be viewed by the public. [2]
