Nellie Peters Black | |
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| Born | (1851-02-09)February 9, 1851 |
| Died | August 4, 1919(1919-08-04) (aged 68) |
Mary Ellen Peters Black (1851–1919) was a prominent organizer and activist related to women's issues inGeorgia.[1] Black also promoted agricultural reform and increasing educational opportunities, especially for women.[2] She was an active member of theAtlanta Woman's Club as well as the Woman's Auxiliary of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.[2]
In 1918, Mary Turner, a pregnant Black woman from Valdosta, Georgia, protested the lynching of her husband. Her punishment was brutal torture before being burned alive, her fetus cut from her abdomen. Nellie Peters Black sent a letter condoning the lynching of Mary Turner. In a letter to the Negro Women's Clubs, Black told the group that "until you teach your people not to molest the whites, there could be no adjustment."[3]
Black's father,Richard Peters, moved fromPennsylvania to Georgia to survey the railroads, working as a civil engineer. He settled inAtlanta and married there.[2] Her mother, Mary Jane Thompson, was involved in social clubs and outreach inAtlanta, where Nellie grew up.[1] During theCivil War, Nellie helped her mother provide aid to wounded soldiers at various local hospitals.[2]
After graduating from Brooke Hall in Pennsylvania, Nellie Peters returned to Atlanta. She soon convinced city officials to build drinking fountains for horses exhausted from the summer heat; it was one of her first examples of civic activism.[2]
In 1877, Nellie marriedGeorge Robinson Black who served as a state senator and later in Congress.[1] Soon after he died of a stroke, Nellie Black became more active in civic reform in Atlanta.[1] Stemming from her interest in public health, Black helped create the King's Daughters Hospital, the first free hospital in Atlanta.[2]
Black also served as the Vice President of the Atlanta Anti-Tuberculosis and Visiting Nurse Association, which provided free treatment to both black and white people in the highly segregated society established after theReconstruction era.[2]
She worked to increase educational opportunities, especially for women.[2] Black was an active member of theAtlanta Woman's Club as well as the Woman's Auxiliary of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.[2]
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