Sarah A. Collins Fernandis
Personal Information
Born: 1863
Died: 1951
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
New York School of Philanthropy MSW 1906; Hampton Normal & Agricultural Institute (later Hampton Institute, the Hampton University) BA 1882
"TBD"
— Sarah A. Collins Fernandis
Professional Life
Field of Study: Social Work
Institution/Corporation: None found
Degrees & Memberships: Member: Cooperative Civic League
Awards & Achievements
Awards: None found
Achievements: established 1st Black social settlement house in the US in Washington DC & a daycare, library, funding organization, classes and training, playgrounds; 1913, founded a group of Black women, called the Cooperative Civic League, a Black organization which corresponded to the white Women’s Civic League; organized and led the Colored Social Settlement House in Washington, D.C., in 1902; was head resident at another settlement house in East Greenwich, Rhode Island from 1908 to 1912; organized to establish the Henryton State Hospital for Black tuberculosis patients;
wrote the lyrics to the Hampton Institute alma mater
taught school for about twenty years, in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, sometimes under the auspices of the Women's Home Missionary Society of Boston
during World War I she organized a War Camp Community Center for Black soldiers stationed in Pennsylvania
1920 became the first Black social worker employed by the Baltimore public health department; retired from the city health department in 1933, but opened a National Youth Administration office in 1936, to help place homeless young women in employment and housing; lectured for the National League of Women Voters, lobbied for compulsory school attendance laws and for quality low-income housing
published two volumes of poetry, Poems and Vision, in 1925 and her poems were often published in the Southern Workman
a room at the YMCA in Baltimore named for her
1905 she inaugurated “Baby Day,” an excursion down the Potomac River to Somerset Beach for 1,300 children