In All Her Glory:

The Honorable Lady Henrietta Vinton Davis

  

This Elocutionist, Actress, Diva, and International Organizer for the UNIA-ACL currently lies in an unmarked grave.  Lets rally to give closure to the life of a truly phenomenal woman.

By Nnamdi Azikiwe

 Proclaimed by Marcus Garvey to be "the greatest woman of the Negro race today", Henrietta Vinton Davis is currently lying in an unmarked grave in National Harmony Memorial Park, Largo, MD.  The members of the UNIA-ACL are taking the initiative in raising funds to provide a fitting memorial to the life of a woman who has yet to receive the recognition she so richly deserves.  Hopefully, after reading this brief synopsis of her life you too will be inspired to add your name to the list of those who consolidated their resources in order to bestow a memorial upon her.  Nothing less is due a woman of her stature as the physical and spiritual link between the Abolitionist movement of Frederick Douglass and the African Redemption movement of Marcus Garvey.

·        Henrietta Vinton Davis is born in the city of Baltimore August 15, 1860 to Mansfield Vinton and Mary Ann (Johnson) Davis.

·        At the early age of fifteen passed the necessary examination and was awarded the position of a teacher in the public schools of Maryland.

·        Goes to teach in the state of Louisiana.

·        Returns to Maryland to care for her ailing mother bearing with her the certificate of the Board of Education.

·        In 1878 she becomes the first African-American woman employed by the Office of the Recorder of Deeds under General George A. Sheridan as a copyist.

·        1881 Frederick Douglass appointed Recorder of Deeds.

·        Within a year Miss Davis began her dramatic education under the tuition of Miss Marguerite E. Saxton of Washington.

·        Introduced by the Hon. Frederick Douglass, she makes her first appearance April 25, 1883, before a distinguished integrated audience.

In All Her Glory continues on page 2

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