Ella D. Barrier (1852 — February 9, 1945) was an
African American educator and
clubwoman. Her younger sister was
Fannie Barrier Williams.
Early life
Ella (or Ellen) D. Barrier was born in
Brockport, New York
Brockport is a village in the Town of Sweden, with two tiny portions in the Town of Clarkson, in Monroe County, New York, United States. The population was 7,104 at the 2020 U.S. Census. The name is derived from Heil Brockway, an early settler. ...
, the daughter of Anthony J. Barrier, a barber, and Harriet A. Prince Barrier. Both parents were born in the northern United States. Her younger sister was Fannie Barrier Williams. Ella graduated from the
Brockport Normal and Training School in 1871, trained to be a school teacher.
Career
Ella Barrier was hired in 1875 to teach in the segregated schools of
Washington, D.C. She stayed in Washington for more than forty years, working as a teacher, school principal, and clubwoman. Barrier helped develop the Washington branch of the
YWCA. In 1891, she taught in
Toronto, as part of a teacher exchange project. In 1900 she and her sister traveled as African-American representatives at the
Paris Exposition, and to the
First Pan-African Conference in London, in a delegation that included
Anna Julia Cooper and
W. E. B. DuBois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian Sociology, sociologist, Socialism, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanism, Pan-Africanist Civil and political civil rights activist. Bor ...
.
[Vivian M. May]
''Anna Julia Cooper, Visionary Black Feminist: A Critical Introduction''
(Routledge 2012): 28, 31. She was active in the Colored Women's League in Washington.
Personal life
Ella D. Barrier and her sister lived together in Brockport in their last years.
[Faith Berry]
''From Bondage to Liberation: Writings by and about Afro-Americans''
(A&C Black 2006): 348. Fannie died in 1944, and Ella died in 1945, aged 92 years.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barrier, Ella D.
1852 births
1945 deaths
20th-century African-American academics
19th-century African-American academics
American educators
Clubwomen
People from Brockport, New York