Elizabeth Evelyn Wright

Infobox Person
name = Elizabeth Evelyn Wright


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birth_date = April 3 1872
birth_place = Talbotton, Georgia
death_date = December 14 1906
death_place = Battle Creek, Michigan
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resting_place = Voorhees College
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known_for = Founding Voorhees College
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alma_mater = Tuskegee Institute
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occupation = Educator
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title = Principal
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spouse = Martin A. Menafee
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parents = John Wesley Wright and Virginia Rolfe
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Elizabeth Evelyn Wright (April 3 1872 - December 14 1906) was an African American woman who founded Denmark Industrial Institute, which became Voorhees College.

Wright was born on April 3 1872 in Talbotton, Georgia. Her father, John Wesley Wright, was an African American carpenter. Her mother, Virginia Rolfe, was a Cherokee woman. She went to school in a church basement.

In 1888, she matriculated at Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute as a night student. After two years, she moved to Hampton County, South Carolina to assist in a rural African American school. After the school was burned, she returned to Tuskegee and graduated.

She started several schools in the lowcountry of South Carolina. Some of these were burned by arsonists or subject to objections by local education officials. Wright started a night school for African American men in Hampton County.

In 1897, she moved to Denmark in Bamberg County, South Carolina to start a school over a store. She raised money to start Denmark Industrial School. Ralph Voorhees, a blind, New Jersey philanthropist, donated $5,000 for the purchase of land and construction of its first building. Vorhees Industrial School. opened in 1902 for male and female students at elementary and high school levels. Voorhees provided additional gifts during the next few years.

She married Martin A. Menafee in 1906. Shortly after her marriage, she became ill. She went to Battle Creek Sanitorium for medical treatment where she died on December 14 1906. [Edgar, Walter. "South Carolina Encyclopedia" (2006) p. 1050, University of South Carolina Press, Columbia, South Carolina ISBN 1-57003-598-2.] [Morris, J. Kenneth. "Elizabeth Evelyn Wright: 1872-1906 Founder of Voorhees College" (1983) University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.]

She is buried on the Voorhees College campus. [ [http://www.nationalregister.sc.gov/bamberg/S10817705009/S10817705009.pdf NHRP Nomination form] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.voorhees.edu/vchistory/index.htm Voorhees College web page on Elizabeth Evelyn Wright]

Persondata
NAME = Wright, Elizabeth Evelyn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Educator, African American
DATE OF BIRTH = April 3 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH = Talbotton, Georgia
DATE OF DEATH = December 14, 1906
PLACE OF DEATH = Battle Creek, Michigan