#enolia pettigen mcmillan

[lboogie1906]

Enolia Pettigen McMillan (October 20, 1904 – October 24, 2006) was an educator, civil rights activist, and community leader and the first female national president of the NAACP.

Born in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Elizabeth Fortune Pettigen and John Pettigen. She attended Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore and Howard University. She graduated with a BA in education.

She received an MA from Columbia University. For her thesis entitled Some Factors Affecting Secondary Education for Negroes in Maryland Counties (Excluding Baltimore). The thesis attacked Maryland’s racist dual school system in the 1930s. She found that the system provided unequal school terms, salary scales, and curricula.

She became a teacher in 1927 in Caroline County, Maryland teaching at Denton High School. In 1928, she became a principal in Charles County. She became president of the Maryland State Colored Teachers’ Association and regional vice-president of the National Association of Colored Teachers. She was one of the first African American teachers at a white school.

She defeated Juanita Mitchell to become president of the Baltimore branch of the NAACP. The National Office was threatened with bankruptcy in 1976 due to legal proceedings against it in connection with a 1966 boycott of white merchants in Port Gibson, Mississippi. She launched a fundraising drive to help defray expenses, and her efforts resulted in the Baltimore branch raising the largest local contribution of $150,000.

She was an outspoken critic of the Reagan Administration, which she felt harmed the NAACP’s advocacy efforts in housing, education, employment, and business. She helped African American businesses to receive federal contracts, and, in 1985, led a protest in Washington against South Africa’s apartheid system.

She was named the first female chair of the board of regents at Morgan State University.

She married Betha D. McMillan. They had a son. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #alphakappaalpha