Blanche Armwood

Blanche Armwood (1890–1939), Educator, activist and the first African-American woman in the state of Florida to graduate from an accredited law school. Blanche is also known for being the first Executive Secretary of the Tampa Urban League and as a founder of five Household Industrial Arts Schools for African-American woman in five different states. Armwood High School in Seffner, Florida is named in her honor.[1][2]

Early life

Blanche Armwood was born on January 23, 1890 in Tampa, Florida to Levin Armwood, Jr. and Margaret Holloman. Born into a prominent middle-class family, she was the one five children. Her great uncle, John Armwood was a negotiator between the Seminole Native Americans and white settlers along the Florida frontier.[3] John Armwood was also an early landowner who homesteaded 159 acres of land in Hillsborough County. Her father was Tampa’s first black policeman who also served as a country deputy sheriff. Mr. Armwood along with Blanche’s brother, Walter, owned the only black-owned drugstore in Tampa the “Gem.” [4] Walter Armwood held positions as a professor at Bethune-Cookman University and as a state supervisor for the U.S. Bureau Negro Economics. Her maternal grandfather, Adam Holloman owned citrus groves and was the Hillsborough County Commissioner from 1873 to 1877.[5] Armwood graduated with honors from St. Peter Claver Catholic School in 1902. That same year, she passed the State Uniform Teacher’s Examination. During that time, Tampa did not have a high school for blacks. As a result, at the age of twelve, her parents sent Blanche to Spelman Seminary (later Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. Blanche excelled in English and Latin courses and graduated summa cum laude from Spelman in 1906 earning a teacher’s certificate.

Career

Armwood returned to Tampa where she began teaching in the Hillsborough County Public Schools where she would remain for the next seven years. In 1913, Armwood suspended her teaching career when she married attorney Daniel Webster Perkins; a marriage that would soon result in divorce. Armwood’s service to the community began 1914 when the Tampa Gas Company, in conjunction with the Hillsborough County Board of Education and the Colored Ministers Alliance commissioned her to organize an industrial arts school designed to train black women in the domestic sciences.[6] From this alliance spawned the Tampa School of Household Arts which was founded around 1915 and trained black women and girls to use then modern household gas appliances as well as other skills which would enable the students to excel in domestic service.[7] Following the school’s first year of operation, over two hundred women received certificates of completion. Later, Armwood would go on to establish similar schools in Roanoke, Virginia; Rock Hill, South Carolina; Athens, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Between 1917 and 1920, while living in New Orleans and married to dentist, John C. Beatty, Armwood received state and federal acclaim for her work in training domestic workers. In 1918, she published Food Conservation in the Home a cookbook which was popular with women of all races. Because the cookbook was published during World War I, her introduction was particularly poignant in stating that: “Every pound of white flour saved is equal to a bullet in our Nation’s defense.” In 1922, Jesse Thomas, of the National Urban League nominated Armwood as the first Executive Secretary of the Tampa Urban League.[8] Throughout her service with the Tampa Urban League, she simultaneously served as assistant principal at Tampa’s Harlem Academy School. Soon after, she was appointed as the first Supervisor of Negro Schools by the Hillsborough County School Board.[9] During her tenure as Supervisor, Armwood established five new school buildings, increased black teacher salaries and extended the school year for blacks from six to nine months. She is also credited for establishing the Booker T. Washington High School in 1926 for black youth in Tampa.

Later Years

In addition to her leadership positions in Tampa, she also held positions in national several organizations as the Chair of the Home Economics Department of the National Association of Colored Women, National Campaign Speaker for the Republican Party and as State Organizer for the Louisiana Chapter of the NAACP. Her increased interest in politics and equal rights for blacks and women led her to pursue a career in law. In 1934, Armwood enrolled in Howard Law School. She earned her juris doctorate in 1938 making her the first black female from the state of Florida to graduate from an accredited law school.[10][11] While on a speaking tour in Medford, Massachusetts, Armwood became ill and died unexpectedly at the age of forty-nine on October 16, 1939. In 1984, Congressman Michael Bilirakis and the Florida House of Representatives paid tribute to Armwood’s legacy. That same year, Blanche Armwood Comprehensive High School (today, Armwood High School) in Tampa was opened in her honor.[12]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Keith Halderman JSTOR: Blanche Armwood of Tampa
  2. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
  3. ↑ Keith Halderman JSTOR: Blanche Armwood of Tampa
  4. ↑ Keith Halderman JSTOR: Blanche Armwood of Tampa
  5. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
  6. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
  7. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
  8. ↑ AFRICAN AMERICAN REGISTRY
  9. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
  10. ↑ AFRICAN AMERICAN REGISTRY
  11. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
  12. ↑ Tampa Native, Blanche Armwood
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