Quick Facts
Biography
Adella Hunt Logan (February 1863 – December 12, 1915) was an American writer, educator, administrator and suffragist. She was an educated black woman, born on the cusp of the Civil War, who earned her teaching credentials at Atlanta University. She went on to teach at the Tuskegee Institute and became an activist for education and suffrage, publishing articles in some of the most noted black periodicals of her time.
Early life and education
Hunt Logan was born in 1863 in Sparta, Georgia to Mariah Hunt, a free African American woman, and Henry Hunt, a white farmer. She was their fourth of eight children. Her father provided her with an education at Bass academy and she became certified as a teacher at age 16 before gaining a scholarship to Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia. At Atlanta University she attended the Upper Normal College where she got a teacher's education and graduated in 1881 after completing the two-year program. Hunt Logan then spent two years teaching in Albany, Georgia at an American Missionary School.
In 1883, Hunt Logan was offered positions teaching at both Atlanta University and Booker T. Washington's Tuskegee Institute. She accepted the offer in Tuskegee and developed a close friendship with Washington. At Tuskegee, Hunt Logan taught English and subjects in the humanities and social sciences. She was also the school's first librarian and served as the "Lady Principal" for a short time.
Logan family
In 1888, she married Warren Logan, a fellow teacher at Tuskegee University. Along with their children and further descendants, Logan and Hunt Logan comprise the famous Logan Family. Logan was also a close friend of Washington's and had begun teaching at Tuskegee the year before she arrived. Between the years of 1890 and 1909, the couple had nine children, six of which survived to adulthood.
Activist work
Hunt Logan is best known for her activist work. Her main interest was education advocacy, seen especially in her work at Tuskegee. In 1895, Hunt Logan joined the Tuskegee Woman's Club which became an affiliate of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) a year later. The Tuskegee chapter worked for to improve the lives of African Americans in local communities. Hunt Logan worked specifically in programs aimed to improve health care as well as advocating for prison reform and running a lending library as a member of the NACW club.
One of Hunt Logan's education advocacy goals was to prepare individuals for universal suffrage. In 1895 the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) held a convention in Atlanta. Due to the difficulty the NAWSA was having passing the Constitutional Amendment on women's suffrage, the organization was looking for support from the southern states. While the NAWSA was appealing to white southerners, African American women and men were turned away from the convention. This was the atmosphere in which Hunt Logan arrived at the convention. Hunt Logan was able to hear Susan B. Anthony speak, and despite the racism she and many other experienced at the convention, Hunt Logan became a member of the NAWSA after being inspire by Anthony's speech.
She campaigned for women's suffrage in Alabama and wrote for the NAWSA's newspaper, The Woman's Journal. In September, 1912, Logan Hunt contributed an article to the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The Crisis, as a part of a special issue on women's suffrage where she argued for the right to vote specifically for women of color. She pointed to success in many western states that had statewide suffrage and argued,
...the colored American believes in equal justice to all, regardless of race, color, creed or sex, and longs for the day when the United States shall indeed have a government of the people, for the people and by the people—even including the colored people.
Hunt Logan wrote many articles for The Crisis as well as the Colored American magazine. In most of her arguments for universal suffrage, Hunt Logan still returned to her roots in education. She argued that African American women should be given the vote so that they would have a say in education legislation.
Death and legacy
In September 1915, following troubles in her marriage and setbacks in the suffrage movement, Hunt Logan suffered from an emotional breakdown that lead to her being sent to a sanitarium in Michigan. Her close friend Booker T. Washington died in November, 1915, and Hunt Logan fell further into her depression. At his memorial service on December 12, 1915, Hunt Logan committed suicide by jumping from a Tuskegee Institute building.
Five years after her death, the United States passed the Nineteenth Amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote. Hunt Logan had fought for this right for many years. Today she is taught in schools because of her impact specifically in the women's suffrage movement, especially as it pertains to women of color.