"Henrietta Vinton Davis Day"
D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, proclaimed August 25, 2008, "Henrietta Vinton Davis Day." The Henrietta Vinton Davis Memorial Foundation, an organization that has been educating people about Davis, made the announcement. The overall goal of getting a marker for Davis’ gravesite was also accomplished. The grave is located in the National Harmony Memorial Park, which is located in Largo, Maryland. Also the foundation announced that Henrietta Vinton Davis will be recognized as the first African American to work at the D.C. Recorder of Deeds office in 1878 and she was just in her late teens. Davis was also acknowledged as a significant cultural icon. Davis was an actor, elocutionist, dramatic, reader and impressionist in Washington, D.C.
Davis’ Life
Henrietta Vinton Davis was born in Baltimore, but grew up in Washington, D.C. At the age of 15 she had earned the necessary accolades to become a teacher in which she taught in Maryland public schools. Henrietta Vinton Davis also taught in Louisiana for a brief time. She became the Recorder of Deeds office shortly after her return to Maryland. Davis performed, "Shakespearean delineation," with her own performing company and is considered the first African American to make the attempt at "Shakespearean delineation’s" after Ira Aldridge also a famous actor. She performed throughout the United States, South America and the Caribbean. She was recognized as the first African American "woman of the stage."
Leader in the Negro Movement
She was a leader of the African American Redemption Movement. She played a big part in the activities of Marcus Garvey. She helped to promote the Universal Negro Improvement Association, which was an organization created by Garvey. Davis was one of the signatories of the Declaration of the Rights of the Negro People World. As the fourth assistant President-General of the UNIA-ACL, Davis established divisions in Cuba, Guadeloupe, St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica. Davis was an executive of the Black Star Line, on the maiden voyage of the S.S. Yarmouth with a cargo worth upwards of $5,000,000 in 1920,which was a company developed by Garvey. Garvey thought Davis to be "the greatest woman of the (African) race." Later Davis separated from Garvey’s UNIA organization and became affiliated with the rival to the UNIA. She was a leader in well known movements she remains an African American leader who is less known. Henrietta Vinton Davis died on November 23, 1941 in Saint Elizabeth’s Hospital in the District of Columbia. She was eighty-one years.
Sources:
http://www.unia-acl.org/archive/hevda.htm
