On this date… 27 July 1874
Mary Annette Anderson Born
Its distinguished members include Supreme Court Justices, Civil Rights leaders, award-winning actors and actresses, famed writers and journalists, Nobel Laureates, and US Presidents. The nation’s oldest, and most prestigious honor society, Phi Beta Kappa (ΦBK), has a long and distinguished history. For more than a hundred years of that existence no Black women were admitted to the society. Until Mary Annette Anderson, who was born on this date, 27 July 1874.
The first meeting of Phi Beta Kappa took place on 5 December 1776 in the Apollo Room of the Raleigh Tavern at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Designed as a serious-minded student society, initially the founders and members met in secret so that they had the freedom to discuss any topic they chose, from history, politics, culture, and religion. The exact nature of the meetings were not transcribed, but they did spark the PBK chosen motto, “Love of Learning is the Guide to Life.”
From its foundings at one college during the American Revolution, PBK soon expanded to New England universities by the end of the war, with chapters at Yale in 1780, Harvard in 1781, and Dartmouth in 1786. From there PBK eventually spread nationwide. It now boasts chapters at 293 campuses across the US and has more than 500,000 members. Yet Black men were only admitted in 1874, followed by white women in 1875, and Black women only in 1899. Though for many years it was thought that Jessie Redmond Fauset was the first Black woman admitted in 1905 (PBK does not record the racial or ethnic status of its members) when in reality the first Black woman was Mary Annette Anderson (she was also likely the first N.
From Shoreham, Vermont, which lies along the shore of Lake Champlain and borders New York state to the west, Mary was born to a freed slave father and and a Canadian immigrant mother of French and Native American ancestry. Mary was a gifted writer and student. She graduated high school from Northfield Seminary for Young Ladies (now known as Northfield Mount Hermon School). She then attended Middlebury College in Vermont. At the time, Middlebury was one of the few colleges that allowed both Black students and women to enroll. Mary’s talents were noticeable, as she graduated as the valedictorian and was elected to PBK. She wrote a poem in honor of her class and also joined a sorority for gifted students.
Despite her academic accomplishments, she was not offered a teaching job in New England, so she went south to teach at two HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities). She spent one year at Straight University in New Orleans, then was appointed a professor of English grammar and History at Howard University in Washington DC, where she remained for seven years.
She met Walter Lucius Smith, the principal of Paul Laurence Dunbar School in Washington, DC, and they married on 7 August, 1907, when she gave up teaching, as was customary at the time. The couple ultimately returned to Vermont, where Walter finished postgraduate work. Mary died on 2 May 1922. She has been called a “trailblazer,” and “a remarkable woman.” She was the first, but not the last, Black woman who became a PBK member. Those include former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, actress Kerry Washington, Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks, and poet Amanda Gorman, amongst many others.