Elizabeth Evelyn Wright

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Elizabeth Evelyn Wright
Born	April 3, 1872 Talbotton, Georgia
Died	December 14, 1906 Battle Creek, Michigan
Burial place	Voorhees College
Alma mater	Tuskegee Institute
Occupation	Educator
Title	Principal
Known for	Founding Voorhees College
Spouse	Martin A. Menafee
Parents	John Wesley Wright and Virginia Rolfe

Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (April 3, 1872 - December 14, 1906) was an African American woman who founded Denmark Industrial Institute, which became Voorhees College.

Wright was born on April 3, 1872 in Talbotton, Georgia. Her father, John Wesley Wright, was an African American carpenter. Her mother, Virginia Rolfe, was a Cherokee woman. She went to school in a church basement.

In 1888, she matriculated at Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute as a night student. After two years, she moved to Hampton County, South Carolina to assist in a rural African American school. After the school was burned, she returned to Tuskegee and graduated.

She started several schools in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Some of these were burned by arsonists or subject to objections by local education officials. Wright started a night school for African American men in Hampton County.

In 1897, she moved to Denmark in Bamberg County, South Carolina to start a school over a store. She raised money to start Denmark Industrial School. Ralph Voorhees, a blind, New Jersey philanthropist, donated $5,000 for the purchase of land and construction of its first building. Vorhees Industrial School. opened in 1902 for male and female students at elementary and high school levels. Voorhees provided additional gifts during the next few years.

She married Martin A. Menafee in 1906. Shortly after her marriage, she became ill. She went to Battle Creek Sanitorium for medical treatment where she died on December 14, 1906.^[1][2]

She is buried on the Voorhees College campus.^[3]

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