Nettie Asberry (July 15, 1865 – November 17, 1968) was an African-American leader, music teacher, and centenarian who helped to found the Tacoma

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

and was active in the

Washington State Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

Association of Colored Women's Clubs.

Early life in Kansas

Nettie J. Craig was born in

Leavenworth, Kansas Leavenworth () is the county seat and largest city of Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States and is part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 37,351. It is located on the west bank of t ...

, the daughter of Violet Craig, a former slave, and William Wallingford, who owned the plantation where Craig had been enslaved. Asberry was the youngest of Craig's six children, and the only one who was born free. She started studying piano at age eight. Taking advantage of the free tuition at the time, she enrolled and graduated from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

and then earned her Doctorate of Music from the Kansas Conservatory of Music and Elocution in Leavenworth, Kansas, on June 12, 1883, a month before her eighteenth birthday. It is possible that she was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate degree.

From Kansas to Seattle and back

After college, Asberry taught music and performed in choirs in

Nicodemus, Kansas Nicodemus is an unincorporated community in Graham County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the community and nearby areas was 14. The community was founded in 1877 and is named for the Biblical figure Nicodemus. ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

, and

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. She married Albert Jones, and the two of them moved to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

to take advantage of the opportunities available there in the midst of the rebuilding of the city after the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. Shortly after arriving, Asberry became first organist and

music director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the d ...

for the First

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

. When Albert Jones died in 1893, however, she returned briefly to her family in Kansas.

Settling in Tacoma

After her husband's death in 1893, Asberry moved to Tacoma with her family. This was where she became one of the founding members of the Tacoma Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter. She tried to fight segregation in Tacoma and Fort Lewis and established the Tacoma City Association of Colored Women's Clubs before traveling around to promote similar ideas, and was provided a federation throughout the state. Asberry was a longtime resident of Tacoma and taught children music and was a choir director, which she was able to do using her PhD. It has also been considered that she was the first African American woman to ever receive a PhD.

Legacy

The Tacoma City Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (Tacoma CWC) named the Asberry Culture Club, named in Asberry's honor. On January 4, 2022, the Tacoma City Council designated the Henry J. and Nettie Craig Asberry House a city landmark. That same week the Tacoma CWC bought the historic Asberry House. Six months later, Tacoma CWC received funding from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program formed in 2017 to aid stewards of Black cultural sites throughout the nation in preserving both physical landmarks, their material collections and associated narratives. It was organiz ...

to be used for the purpose of preserving and interpreting Asberry's home.

References

External links