Nettie Langston Napier | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Nettie DeElla Langston (1861-06-17)June 17, 1861 Oberlin, Ohio |
| Died | September 30, 1938(1938-09-30) (aged 77) Nashville, Tennessee |
| Occupation | activist |
| Spouse | |
Nettie Langston Napier (born Nettie DeElla Langston[1]) was an African-American activist for the rights of women of color during the early part of the 20th century. She lived inNashville, Tennessee.
Nettie Langston was born June 17, 1861[2] inOberlin, Ohio, into anupper-class family. Her father wasJohn Mercer Langston, later the founding dean of the law school atHoward University, first president ofVirginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, ahistorically black college, and the first black person to be elected to theUnited States Congress from Virginia. Her mother wasCaroline Matilda (Wall), also a graduate of Oberlin. After attending Howard for a year, Nettie transferred toOberlin College, where she studied music.
Her future husband,James Carroll Napier, was then working at the State Department and earned his law degree at Howard, where he met John Mercer Langston and his family. Napier returned to Nashville in 1872 to start a law practice. In 1878 he and Nettie married in Washington D.C., in a "predominantly white Congregational church".[1] They adopted a daughter, Carrie.
Napier became a "prominent clubwom[a]n" in Nashville, and made important social connections across the South. She was part of a "southern network" of about a dozen upper-class women, including such prominent women asMaggie L. Walker,Mary McLeod Bethune,Margaret Murray Washington,Jennie B. Moton,Charlotte Hawkins Brown, andLucy Craft Laney.[3] She was a close friend of the educatorJohn Hope, and was described as "the first lady of Nashville's black elite". The Napier household was known as "the undisputed center of Nashville's African American upper class".[1]
In 1907 she founded the Day Homes' Club, an organization to support African-American children in Nashville.[4]Josie English Wells was physician in charge.[4] She was involved withFisk University, and was invited by the localRed Cross chapter to work with them duringWorld War I.[5] She was treasurer of theNational Association of Colored Women,[6] leading the organization together with Margaret Murray Washington.[5]
In 1915, during a decade when the nationalYoung Women's Christian Association (YWCA) was considering expanding its services to colored women (its facilities would be segregated), Napier attended the organization's conference inLouisville, as the representative of Nashville. She wanted to establish a YWCA in Nashville for women of color.[7]
In the 1920s, she became an Honorary Member ofZeta Phi Beta sorority.
In 1934 students ofTennessee State College's "negro history class" honored her and her husband with a pageant entitledFrom Africa to America.[8]
Napier died on September 30, 1938, in Nashville.[2]
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