Charlotte Andrews Stephens

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Charlotte "Lottie" Andrews Stephens (* 1854 in Little Rock , Arkansas , † December 17, 1951 ) was the first African American teacher in the Little Rock school district.

Lottie Stephens was born to William Wallace Andrews , a slave to Senator Chester Ashley , and Caroline Williams Andrews , a slave to the Noah Badgett family. Her father worked as a carpenter and cabinet maker and was since 1854 teacher and minister of the Wesley Chapel Methodist Congregation . When Little Rock was occupied by Union forces during the Civil War in 1863 , all slaves were given freedom, and William Andrews established a private school in the church for these freed slaves.

In 1867 the Quakers founded a school in Little Rock, which Lottie Stephens also attended. Two years later she began her teaching here, replacing her own sick teacher, which was to last for 70 years. After a year she went to Oberlin College , which accepted black students, and studied Latin, geometry, Roman history, music, English and biblical studies there with interruptions until 1873. From 1873 she taught again in Little Rock and was here in 1877 director of the Capitol Hill School . In the same year she married John Herbert Stephens, with whom she had eight children.

Stephens became a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union , the Federated Women's Club , the Bay View Reading Club, and the Young Women's Christian Association . Her excellent reputation as a teacher and headmistress brought her offers and a. from Philander Smith College in Little Rock and the University of Arkansas , all of which she declined. From 1929 until her retirement in 1939, she was a high school librarian and teacher. During her time as an elementary school teacher, she gave piano lessons to the later composer Florence Price . The school for colored people in Little Rock was named after her Stephens Elementary School in 1909 , as were the new buildings that were modernized in 1950 and 2001.

literature

  • Kennan, Clara B. The First Black Teacher in Little Rock. Arkansas Historical Quarterly 9 (Autumn 1950): 194-204.
  • Terry, Adolphine Fletcher. Charlotte Stephens: Little Rock's First Black Teacher. Little Rock: Academic Press of Arkansas, 1973.
  • Gordon, Fon Louise. Black Women in Arkansas. Pulaski County Historical Review 35 (Summer 1987): 26-28.

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personal data
SURNAME Stephens, Charlotte Andrews
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stephens, Lottie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American teacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Little rock
DATE OF DEATH 17th December 1951
Place of death Little rock