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Mary F. Clifford, Student, Storer College, Harpers Ferry, W. Va. Smith Brothers Studio, Martinsburg, W. Va.
1st initiate, Alpha Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated Mary Frances Clifford 2/11/1909
1st initiate, Alpha Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated Mary Frances Clifford 2/11/1909
Mary Frances Clifford was born on December 25, 1888, in Martinsburg, West Virginia.1 Before graduating from Storer College in 1906 Clifford delivered the opening Credo at the 2nd meeting 1906 Niagra meeting of what would become the NAACP. 2. 3. The credo was written by Dubois and is recognized as one of the most important pieces of 20th Century African American writing stated to be on par with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 's 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech.
The Niagara Movement was the forerunner to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Determined to take their rightful place in society, Niagara members demanded equal enforcement of the law for all races and active political involvement at all levels of society. The group’s 1906 meeting was later described by Wm. E. B. DuBois as “one of the greatest meetings that American Negroes ever held.” 4
Her father John Robert Clifford was born to free parents and grandparents in Virginia in 1848. He became West Virginia's first African-American attorney. [Story about a famous case.] Clifford was also a newspaper publisher, editor and writer, school teacher, and principal. He was a Civil War veteran, as well as a civil rights pioneer and founding member of the Niagara Movement (forerunner to the NAACP). 6 Clifford broke with the Niagara Movement when it formed the NAACP in 1909. Among other disagreements, he objected to the use of the word "colored" in the organization's title. 5
https://www.facebook.com/HBCUCalendar/photos/sarah-sally-hemings1773-1835the-birth-of-sally-hemings-in-1773-is-celebrated-on-/3070565926299074/
Mary’s mother was born into slavery in Lexington, Virginia. Her siblings and her were born to Albert Franklin and Mary Elizabeth Edmondson Franklin making them direct descendants of Monticello slaves and her sister Coralie the first of the descendants to graduate from college. They are direct descendants of Elizabeth “Betty” Hemings, the mother of Sally Hemings, a slave under the ownership of Thomas Jefferson and mother to six children of which he fathered.
Mary Clifford continued her education further at Howard university and lived in DC with her mother, maternal aunt and uncle Howard professors George and Coralie Cook. While living with the Cooks she enthusiastically became one of the first initiates of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated on February 11, 1909. She was one of three speakers at their very first initiation banquet held on February 13th of the same year.
Mary Clifford’s aunt, Coralie Coralie Franklin Cook continued her impressive career into her marriage and motherhood, teaching Elocution and English at Howard University. She also served as chair of the oratory department and founded the school of expression at the Washington Conservatory of Music. Coralie Franklin Cook served for twelve years as a member of the District of Columbia Board of Education. While an early supporter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated Coralie became an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated sometime before 1942. Throughout her life, Franklin Cook was a champion for all women and a devoted suffragist. Her husband George Cook was also a former slave who became a renowned professor and dean of Howard University, and according to The Journal of Negro History, served the university as a professor of commercial law, dean of the school of commerce and finance, business manager, secretary, acting president, alumni secretary, and member of the board of trustees.
George Cook was an early supporter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated as he brought greetings at our first national meeting in 1915. He often spoke highly of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and allowed them to entertain & serve in their home for years. Cook also helped guide Nellie Quander through the steps of national incorporation making them the first black sorority to do so. Mary Clifford married Charles Black on May 15, 1917, in Warrensburg, Missouri and She died on July 19, 1925, in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 36.
More about Mary...
Mary's time at Howard was well spent. Along with her activism in giving to the needy and feeding the hungry with her beloved sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated Mary participated in civic associations and was very active in campus life.
She was nominated for the Pestalozzi-Froebel presidency.
Performed the Paene Prep Man toast with her line sisters & Helen Mondy for a surprise party for Mabel Gibson.
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