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Alberta Virginia Scott (c. 1875 — August 30, 1902) was an American educator. She was the first African-American graduate of Radcliffe College, in 1898.

Early life

Alberta Virginia Scott was born near Richmond, Virginia. Her mother worked as a cook. She raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her family moved when she was six years old. Her family were members of the historic Union Baptist Church in Cambridge. Scott attended Allston School (finishing in 1889) and then Cambridge Latin School, graduating with the class of 1894.

In 1898, Alberta Virginia Scott became the first African-American graduate of Radcliffe College.

Career

Alberta Scott planned for a career in teaching. She taught in Indianapolis and, briefly, at Tuskegee Institute after graduating from Radcliffe.

Death and legacy

Alberta Scott died in 1902, in Cambridge, aged 26 years after a 16 month illness attributed to overwork and grief after the loss of her father. "Her death cuts off what should have been a useful and creditable life of work among those of her race," concluded an obituary in a Cambridge newspaper.

There is a placard about Alberta V. Scott in Cambridge, placed by the Cambridge African American History Project in 1993. The Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW) offers an Alberta V. Scott Mentorship Program, named in her honor.

References

1. "Harvard's Negro Graduate" The Dighton Herald (August 18, 1898): 3. via Newspapers.com
2. Church History, Union Baptist Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
3. "Our Public Schools" Cambridge Press (June 29, 1889): 2.
4. "The Valedictory" Cambridge Tribune (June 30, 1894): 7.
5. "Alberta Virginia Scott, Class of 1898" Archived 2017-02-03 at the Wayback Machine photograph in the collection of the Schlesinger Library.
6. Kris Snibbe, "A Window into African-American History" Harvard Gazette (February 4, 2011).
7. "Colored Graduate" Kansas City Journal (July 3, 1898): 15. via Newspapers.com
8. ^ "Colored Teacher Dead" Cambridge Chronicle (September 6, 1902): 6.
9. "Deaths" Cambridge Tribune (September 6, 1902): 8.
10. Cambridge Office of Tourism, Alberta V. Scott placard.
11. Association of Black Harvard Women, About: History.

External links

• Radcliffe College autograph collection: A Finding Aid. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

• Radcliffe College alumni
• Educators from Cambridge, Massachusetts
• 1870s births
• 1902 deaths
• Educators from Virginia
• Tuskegee University faculty
• 19th-century American educators
• 20th-century American educators
• People from Richmond, Virginia
• 19th-century American women educators
• 20th-century American women educators
• American women academics
• 20th-century African-American women
• 20th-century African-American educators
• 19th-century African-American educators