Bessye Johnson Bearden (November 1893 September 16, 1943)"Bessye J. Bearden"
Biographical Summaries of Notable People, My Heritage. was an American journalist and civic activist, who was the mother of artist

Romare Bearden Romare Bearden (September 2, 1911 – March 12, 1988) was an American artist, author, and songwriter. He worked with many types of media including cartoons, oils, and collages. Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Bearden grew up in New York City a ...

Biography

Born in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

, as Bessye Banks, youngest child of George T. and Carrie O. Banks, she attended schools in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

Hartshorn Memorial College Hartshorn Memorial College was a school for African-American women in Richmond, Virginia, from 1883–1932, when it merged into Virginia Union University. History Hartshorn Memorial College was created in Richmond, Virginia, in 1883 as a colleg ...

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, and Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute (now Virginia State University), from which she graduated."Bessye B. Bearden papers"

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...

The New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

. She subsequently did graduate work at the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

) and

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. At the age of 20 she married Richard Howard Bearden, with whom she had one son, Romare, born in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. The family moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1914, settling in 1920 in

Harlem Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street (Manhattan), 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and 110th Street (Manhattan), ...

, where their home was a meeting place for intellectuals and artists, including such musicians as

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

and

Thomas "Fats" Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...

Calvin Tomkins Calvin Tomkins (born 17 December 1925) is an author and art critic for ''The New Yorker'' magazine. Life and career Tomkins was born in Orange, New Jersey. After graduating from Berkshire School, he attended Princeton University and received an un ...

in ''The Jazz Cadence of American Culture'' describes Bessye J. as "a political force in Harlem...someone you came to when you wanted to cut through red tape and get action."Calvin Timkins
"Profiles: Putting Something Over Something Else"
in Robert G. O'Meally (ed.), ''The Jazz Cadence of American Culture'', Columbia University Press, p. 227. For several years from 1927 she served as a New York correspondent for the ''

Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

'', as well as doing freelance writing for other publications. She was the first woman to become a member of a local New York City school board,"Black History"
, The Woodlawn Cemetery. being elected in 1922 to local School Board No. 15, where she served until 1939. She was also involved in a variety of civic activities and belonged to several organizations, including the New York

Urban League The National Urban League, formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for African Am ...

, where she was secretary of the executive board, the Council of Negro Women, where she served as treasurer, and the executive boards of the Harlem Community Council and the Colored Women's Democratic League, of which she was the first president. On June 11, 1935, she was appointed Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue for the State of New York. She died in

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 272-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded in 1887. The hosp ...

, aged 49, and is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery.

References

* Yenser, Thomas (editor), ''Who's Who in Colored America: A Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America'', Brooklyn, New York, 1930–1931–1932.

External links

"Bessye B. Bearden papers"

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bearden, Bessye J. 1893 births 1943 deaths African-American non-fiction writers Writers from North Carolina Writers from Atlantic City, New Jersey 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century African-American writers