Pauline Ray Morton Finney

Phenomenal Pauline

Mrs. Pauline Ray Morton-Finney, AKA, veteran educator, community activist.

Born as the youngest daughter to November 19, 1889, in Geneva, New York, her father, Sanford, was 31, and her mother, Elizabeth, was 27.
A French and Literature teacher.
Morton Finney taught at Schools 4, 17, 36 and 42 & Crispus Attucks High School
During her career she also taught at Tuskegee Institute (Ala.); Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Mo, University of Minnesota.
Fortnightly Literary Club, and Phi Delta Kappa.

Pauline Ray Morton-Finney (1890–1975): Educator, Civil Rights Advocate, and Sorority Leader
Pauline Ray Morton-Finney was a relentless force for education, civil rights, and women’s leadership in the 20th century. Born in the 1890s, she came of age in an era of deep racial segregation and yet carved out a life defined by service, intellect, and impact.
In 1911, she became one of the first African-American women admitted to live in Sage Dormitory at Cornell University—a landmark moment for the institution. She graduated in 1913, one of just four African-American students in her class of 858, and the only African-American New Yorker to do so.
During the 1910s and 1920s, she worked closely with Phyllis Wheatley Waters, designer of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority crest. Their alliance laid the foundation for lasting institutional change. In 1921, she married, and in 1923, became a charter member of the Lambda Omega Chapter (now Alpha Mu Omega) of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She remained deeply active in the chapter through the decade, serving as president from 1931 to 1932, during which she raised scholarship funds and launched community initiatives.
In 1928, she used performance art as education, producing a health-focused play to promote wellness. Her commitment to young people was unwavering, and she often developed school math and business programs to prepare students for the future. She earned a Master’s degree from Butler University, where she was later inducted into the Phi Kappa Phi National Honorary Society in 1942.
Her influence only grew in the 1930s, as she worked with Mary McLeod Bethune on the National Council of Negro Women and advised First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt on educational policy. She pushed for global education reform and led the Woman’s Improvement Club’s foreign education campaigns. In 1941, she opened her home to political and regional leaders, affirming her place in civic leadership. That same year, her academic paper, “Latin, A Basis for French and Spanish Study,” was used in scholarly research and education funding proposals.
A lifelong Episcopalian, she supported St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, running fundraisers for the Philippian Society in 1963. Even while using a wheelchair, she remained an active participant in her 50th and 60th college reunions, reflecting the same spirit she brought to her activism.
In 1964, she received an award in Springfield, Illinois, for her work in open housing and residential freedom—a key civil rights issue. She was a member of the Indianapolis Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights, often accompanied in her work by her daughter, Gloria Ann Morton-Finney, a schoolteacher.
She also established a scholarship in her husband’s honor at Butler University and supported justice research and reform at the institution. In 1966, she led programs for kindergarteners, advocated for parental rights, and even sewed aprons for school programs—a testament to her hands-on leadership.
Her public service continued as a member of the Human Rights Commission in 1967, and in 1969, she investigated racial discrimination at Butler University alongside the Urban League. She celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in 1971, still actively engaged in social causes.
A true innovator, she developed a television-based teaching program and, in the final years of her life, served as principal of Indianapolis Public School #56—the first woman to hold that position. She led the school for four years before her passing in 1975.
Three years after her death, the Indianapolis Recorder honored her legacy with a half-page article in its June 3, 1978 issue, celebrating her as a dedicated and innovative teacher whose work touched generations.

SkeePhi Moment #2 -

Alpha Man, James B. Clark, speaks up for the women in their fight for adequate housing at Cornell.

1911 - Fought at Cornell with Rosa Vassar about student housing.

AKAs, Pauline Ray and Rosa Vassar had been denied dormitory rooms. Traveling a mile and a half from campus, they had “grown tired of climbing the hill or getting half frozen waiting for street cars.”

Learning of their predicament and that of others before them, in 1911 sophomore St. Lucia native James B. Clark passionately pleaded for justice in the Cornell Era , the student weekly. “Is that the way Mr. Cornell’s ideals being carried?” he asked. Gertrude Martin, advisor to Cornell’s women, announced that the university did not have a racial ban.

References:

2012_Book_TheBlackCampusMovement, 33

https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:641478

The SPHINX | Spring 1914 | Volume 1 | Number 1 191400101, Page 6

BAttle @SAGE

1911 - Fought at Cornell with Rosa Vassar about student housing.

Pauline Ray and Rosa Vassar had been denied dormitory rooms. Traveling a mile and a half from campus, they had “grown tired of climbing the hill or getting half frozen waiting for street cars.”

“I advised them to go somewhere else, as they would not find it pleasant for them living at Sage College,” asserting a common justification at the time among paternal liberals for de facto campus segregation. The majority of Cornell’s white female students (269 in total) petitioned the trustees in late March 1911 to officially bar African Americans.

Within days, Ray and Vassar, still desiring campus rooms, issued a statement. “We don’t seek social equality,” they declared. “If we could live at Sage College, as far as convenience and comfort goes, we would be as one with the rest of the girls, but in all things social we would be as separate as two fingers on one hand,”. A week later, Cornell president Jacob G. Schurman publicly unlocked the women’s dorm for black students.

Rosa Vassar & Pauline played a significant role in the fight to integrate Sage Hall at Cornell University, a landmark moment in the early struggle for racial equality in higher education. As an African American student at Cornell during the early 1900s, the women faced the institutionalized racism and social barriers that were commonplace in predominantly white institutions. Sage Hall, a dormitory designated for women, initially re-barred African American students from residing there, reflecting broader racial segregation practices of the time.

Determined to challenge this exclusion, Rosa, alongside other African American students and allies, advocated for her right to live in Sage Hall. Their persistence and courage in confronting the university’s policies were pivotal in breaking down this barrier. Rosa’s success in gaining residence at Sage Hall was not merely a personal victory but a significant step toward greater inclusivity at Cornell. It set a precedent that challenged the discriminatory norms of the era and paved the way for future African American students to access equal opportunities on campus.

This battle was emblematic of Rosa’s resilience and commitment to justice, qualities that would define her lifelong contributions as an educator, community leader, and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Differing Account:

One version says the couple John and Pauline met at Lincoln.

After the war, he earned degrees in math, French, and history. At Lincoln College, he heard about a new French teacher, Pauline Ray, with a degree from Cornell University. Morton-Finney signed into her class and won her heart. They were married and moved to Indianapolis in 1922.

http://208.106.178.123/research/books/morton-finney.htm

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