author
Addie W. Hunton
1866–1943
A pioneering Black educator and organizer, she helped shape early civil rights and women’s rights work in the United States and abroad. Her life joined teaching, public service, and activism in a way that still feels strikingly modern.
1 Audiobook
Two Colored women with the American Expeditionary Forces
by Addie W. Hunton, Kathryn M. (Kathryn Magnolia) Johnson
About the author
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1866, she was raised in Boston after her mother died young. She attended Boston Latin School and, in 1889, became the first Black woman to graduate from Spencerian College of Commerce in Cleveland.
She began her career as a teacher, then became widely known for her work with the Young Women’s Christian Association and the National Association of Colored Women. During World War I, she went to France to support Black American soldiers, and later she worked with the NAACP as an organizer, writer, and advocate for racial justice, women’s rights, and international peace.
She also co-wrote Two Colored Women with the American Expeditionary Forces, a firsthand account of Black women’s wartime service. Remembered as a suffragist, educator, and tireless organizer, she spent decades building institutions and pushing them to serve Black communities more fully.