Emma V. Kelley
Emma V. Kelley | |
|---|---|
 Kelley in 1921 publication | |
| Born | Emma Virginia Lee February 8, 1867 Barrett's Neck, Nansemond County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | December 14, 1932 (aged 65) |
| Resting place | Calvary Cemetery Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Hampton Normal Institute |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouse |
Robert Kelley (m. 1893) |
| Children | 1 |
Emma Virginia Kelley (February 8, 1867 – December 14, 1932) was an American educator and community organizer. She founded a women's organization, Daughters of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World.
Early life[edit]
Emma Virginia Lee was born as Emma Virginia Lee in Barrett's Neck, Nansemond County, Virginia, the daughter of John Lee and Agnes Walker Lee. She trained as a teacher at Hampton Normal Institute.[1][2]
Career[edit]
Lee taught as a young woman, before she married. In widowhood, she moved to Norfolk, Virginia, where she founded the "Daughters of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World", the first women's auxiliary to the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World (IBPOEW), a black fraternal organization, in 1903.[3] The organization was affiliated with the National Council of Negro Women. She wrote a short history of the organization, published posthumously in 1943.[4]
She served as the President of the Missionary Society at her church, Queen Street Baptist Church in Norfolk, Virginia, from 1902 to 1932 and as the Superintendent of Sunday School for over two decades.[5] Kelley also was the director of the Norfolk Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company, treasurer of the Colored United Charities, and a trustee of the Norfolk Community Hospital.[6]
Personal life[edit]
Lee married Robert Kelley in 1893. They had a daughter, Buena Vista Kelley.[7] Kelley was widowed in 1900. She died in 1932, aged 65 years.[1] Her grave in Calvary Cemetery in Norfolk is included on historical tours of the cemetery.[8] The Daughters of Elks national organization presents an annual Emma V. Kelley Achievement Award, named in her memory.[9]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Emma V. Kelley, Calvary Cemetery, Historic Forrest website.
- ^ A. B. Caldwell, History of the American Negro and his Institutions, Virginia Edition (A. B. Caldwell Publishing 1921): 499-501.
- ^ Theda Skocpol, Ariane Liazos, Marshall Ganz, eds., What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality (Princeton University Press 2006): 71-72. ISBN 9780691122991
- ^ Kelley's history of the Daughters of I.B.P.O.E.W. : organized June 13, 1902, Norfolk, Va. (1943).
- ^ The Daughters of Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World (1952). The Golden Jubilee Souvenir Year Book. Norfolk, Virginia: Grand Temple of the Daughters of Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World.
- ^ "Dictionary of Virginia Biography - Emma Virginia Lee Kelley (8 February 1867-14 December 1932) Biography". www.lva.virginia.gov. Retrieved March 18, 2024.
- ^ National Council of Negro Women, The Historical Cookbook of the American Negro (Beacon Press 2000): 58. ISBN 9780807009642
- ^ "A Tour of Historic Calvary Cemetery" (PDF). Norfolk Department of Recreation, Parks, and Open Space. February 14, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2018.
- ^ "Female Evangelists" The Crisis (November 1982): 38.
External links[edit]
Media related to Emma V. Kelley at Wikimedia Commons- Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Emma V. Kelley (December 27, 1926), W. E. B. DuBois Papers, University of Massachusetts Amherst Special Collections and University Archives.
