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Josephine Silone Yates, nel 1902 circa

Josephine Silone Yates, detta Mrs. R. K. Potter (Mattituck, 15 novembre 1859 – Kansas City, 3 settembre 1912), è stata una docente, scrittrice, oratrice e attivista statunitense; fu la prima donna di colore a dirigere un dipartimento scientifico universitario e la prima donna di colore a ricoprire una cattedra completa in qualsiasi college o università degli Stati Uniti. Si formò in chimica e diventò uno dei primi professori neri assunti alla Lincoln University di Jefferson City, nel Missouri. Con la sua promozione, divenne la prima donna di colore a dirigere un dipartimento scientifico universitario.[1][2] Potrebbe essere stata la prima donna di colore a ricoprire una cattedra completa in qualsiasi college o università degli Stati Uniti[3].

La Yates diede anche un contributo significativo al giornalismo, a volte con lo pseudonimo di Mrs. R. K. Potter, e alla mobilità sociale generale delle donne di colore. Fu ad esempio, corrispondente del Woman's Era, la prima rivista mensile pubblicata da donne nere negli Stati Uniti. Scrisse anche per altri giornali e riviste, tra cui l'Enterprise di Omaha, Nebraska.[4]

La Yates è stata una figura importante nel movimento dei club femminili afroamericani e ha contribuito a stabilire dei club femminili per le donne afroamericane, in quanto contribuì a fondare ed a presiedere la Kansas City Colored Women's League (1893) ed è stata la seconda presidente della National Association of Colored Women (1900-04).[1]

Vita e formazione

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Josephine Silone's birth is given variously as 1852[1] and November 15, 1859.[5][6] She was the second daughter of Alexander and Parthenia Reeve Silone in Mattituck, New York.[7] During her childhood, Silone and her family lived with her maternal grandfather, Lymas Reeves, who had been freed from slavery in 1813.[8]

Silone started school at the age of six, and was rapidly advanced by her teachers.[1] In fact "at the age of nine, she reportedly studied physiology and physics and possessed advanced mathematical ability. At the age of nine, Silone submitted "a story for publication to a New York weekly magazine. Though the article was rejected for publication, she received a letter of encouragement, which increased her ambition to succeed."[8]

Silone's uncle, Reverend John Bunyan Reeve, was the pastor of the Lombard Street Central Church in Philadelphia. At the age of 11, she went to live with him so that she could attend the Institute for Colored Youth. There she was mentored by its director, Fanny Jackson Coppin.[1][2][9] The next year, Rev. Reeve moved to Howard University, and as a result, Josephine went to live in Newport, Rhode Island with her maternal aunt, Francis I. Girard. There, she attended grammar school and later Rogers High School. Yates was the only black student at both, but was well received by her teachers due to her academic prowess. Her science teacher considered her his brightest pupil and enabled her to do additional laboratory work in chemistry. As the first black student to graduate from Rogers High School,[9] Josephine graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1877 and received a medal for scholarship.[1]

Silone chose to attend the Rhode Island State Normal School in Providence to become a teacher, rather than pursue a university career. She graduated with honors in 1879, the only black student in her class.[1] She was the first African American certified to teach in the schools of Rhode Island[2] and later earned a master's degree from the National University of Illinois.[5]

Insegnamento

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Josephine A. Silone Yates, ca 1885

In 1879, Josephine Silone moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, to work as one of the first black teachers at Lincoln University. President Inman Edward Page considered it essential to replace the previously white faculty with black teachers, as role models for the school's African-American students. The teachers lived on campus in the dormitories with the students.[1] Josephine taught chemistry, elocution, and English literature.[2] Upon her promotion to head of the natural science department, she became the first black woman to head a college science department[1] and the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any U.S. college or university.[3]

In 1886, she was offered the position of "lady-principal" at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama led by Booker T. Washington. She declined.[6]

Josephine Silone Yates was clear about her purpose in teaching. In a 1904 essay, she wrote: "The aim of all true education is to give to body and soul all the beauty, strength, and perfection of which they are capable, to fit the individual for complete living."[3]

Matrimonio e famiglia

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In 1889, Josephine Silone married William Ward Yates.[5] Many schools prohibited married women from teaching, and upon her marriage, Josephine Silone gave up her teaching position at Lincoln. She moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where her husband was the principal of Phillips School.[1] Her daughter Josephine Silone Yates, Jr. was born in 1890. Her son William Blyden Yates was born in 1895.[2]

Mrs. R.K. Potter

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In Kansas City, Yates became active in the African-American women's club movement. She was a correspondent for the Woman's Era (the first monthly magazine published by black women in the United States), and also wrote for the Southern Workman, The Voice of the Negro, the Indianapolis Freeman, and the Kansas City Rising Son, under her own name and the pseudonym "R. K. Porter". Racial uplift was one of many topics she spoke and wrote about. She was identified as an exemplar of her race and included as one of 100 of "America's greatest Negroes" in Twentieth Century Negro Literature; or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro in 1902. Her paper addressed the question "Did the American Negro make, in the nineteenth century, achievements along the lines of wealth, morality, education, etc., commensurate with his opportunities? If so, what achievements did he make?" She published poetry, including "The Isles of Peace," "The Zephyr," and "Royal To-Day."

Il movimento del Club delle donne

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Josephine Silone Yates, ca. 1900

Josephine Silone Yates helped to found the Women's League of Kansas City,[10] an organization for the self-help and social betterment for African-American women, and became its first president in 1893. In 1896, the Women's League joined the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), a federation of similar clubs from around the country.[6] Silone Yates served with the NACW for four years as the treasurer[9] or vice-president[2] (1897 to 1901) and for four years as president (1901 to 1904).[1][9] By 1911, she had helped found the first black Young Women's Christian Association in Kansas City.[11]

A testament to her accomplishments and acclaim is in a speech presented by Anna Julia Cooper in 1893 at the World's Congress of Representative Women in Chicago:

«Anche le nostre donne sono attive negli sforzi organizzati per l'auto-aiuto e la solidarietà. La Colored Women's League, di cui sono attualmente segretaria corrispondente, ha sedi attive ed energiche nel Sud e nell'Ovest. La sezione di Kansas City, che conta circa centocinquanta membri, ha già iniziato, sotto la guida della sua energica presidente, la signora Yates, la costruzione di un edificio per le ragazze senza amici.[12]»

Vita successiva

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In 1902, she was recalled by the president of Lincoln Institute to serve as the head of the department of English and history. In 1908 she requested to resign due to illness, but the board of regents did not accept, and she stayed on as the advisor to women at Lincoln.[5] Her husband died in 1910,[2] after which Josephine Silone Yates chose to return to Kansas City. She died on September 3, 1912, after a short illness.[2]

Note

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k (EN) Jeannette E. Brown, African American Women Chemists, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN 9780199742882.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h (EN) Gary R. Kremer, Dictionary of Missouri biography, Columbia, Mo. [u.a.], University of Missouri Press, 1999, 818, ISBN 0826212220.
  3. ^ a b c (EN) Gary R. Kremer e Cindy M. Mackey, 'Yours for the Race': The Life and Work of Josephine Silone Yates, in Missouri Historical Review, vol. 90, 2ª ed., 1996, pp. 199–215.
  4. ^ (EN) "Education. Lucinda Gamble, Editor. Editorial." Enterprise (Omaha, Nebraska), April 4, 1896: 2. Readex: African American Newspapers.
  5. ^ a b c d (EN) Josephine Silone-Yates, su womenscouncil.org, Missouri Women's Council. URL consultato il February 8, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c (EN) David Conrads, Josphine Silone Yates, su kchistory.org, Kansas City Public Library. URL consultato il February 8, 2014.[collegamento interrotto]
  7. ^ (EN) Jeannette E. Brown, African American women chemists, New York, Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 12, ISBN 9780199742882.
  8. ^ a b (EN) Brown, Jeannette. "Early Pioneers." In African American Women Chemists: . Oxford University Press, 2012. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2020. doi: 10.1093/oso/9780199742882.003.0006.
  9. ^ a b c d (EN) Yates, Josephine Silone (1852-1912), su blackpast.org, BlackPast.org Blog, 19 April 2007. URL consultato il February 8, 2014.
  10. ^ (EN) League of Women Voters, Kansas City, LWVKC, Jackson, Clay, Platte, Cass County, Independence, Western Missouri, voter registration, voting, elections, suffragettes, voting rights - LWVKC/JCP, su www.lwvkc.org. URL consultato l'11 ottobre 2024.
  11. ^ (EN) Notable women in early Kansas City, February 16, 2004, p. B4. KCPL archive
  12. ^ (EN) May Wright Sewall (a cura di), The World's Congress of Representative Women, Chicago, Rand McNally, 1894, pp. 711–715.

Bibliografia

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Altri progetti

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Collegamenti esterni

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  Portale Biografie
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