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" A Diamond Who Never Dimmed”
" A Diamond Who Never Dimmed”
Fannie Pitt (1910–2004)
Fannie Pitt (1910–2004)
Scholar, Alpha Kappa organizer, national Episcopal field worker, and relentless voter
Fannie Annell Pitt Jeffrey’s story begins in Tuskegee, Alabama, where she was born on August 8, 1910, a daughter of Claudius N. Pitt. By the late 1920s, her family had moved to Denver, Colorado, and Fannie enrolled at Colorado State Teachers College in Greeley (now the University of Northern Colorado). She completed her Bachelor’s degree there — an accomplishment remarkable not only for its rigor, but for its context. Black students in Greeley faced open discrimination and episodes of violence, both on campus and in the town itself. Yet Fannie persevered, finding solidarity and purpose among a small group of like-minded young women determined to excel despite the hostility surrounding them.¹
That determination took form in November 1928, when Fannie joined fellow students and Denver graduates to found Alpha Kappa, the city chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Their work was deliberate: to create intellectual community and mutual protection in an environment that too often excluded them. Within a year, their excellence could not be denied. In early 1930, The Chicago Defender announced that Alpha Kappa had been awarded the university’s Silver Cup for the highest sorority GPA, naming Fannie among the honorees. The Ivy Leaf, Alpha Kappa Alpha’s national magazine, echoed their achievements in its 1929 and 1932 editions, proof that even in the face of racial barriers, these women turned scholarship into quiet resistance.
By 1940, the newspapers identified her as Mrs. Fannie Pitt Gross, reflecting her first marriage. That same year, she stepped into a new arena of service: appointed National Field Worker for the Women’s Auxiliary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Across the spring of 1940, her photo and name appeared in the Black press, describing her national speaking tours and her mission to strengthen women’s and youth work within the church. Later that year, she was a featured speaker at the Dayton Diocesan Conference for Colored Churchwomen — her presence there signaling both authority and grace.
From 1940 to 1941, Fannie pursued advanced training at Windham House in New York, contributing to the founding of the Bishop Tuttle School, an Episcopal training center for missionaries and educators. Church records and recollections list her as Fannie Pitt Gross Jeffrey, showing the thread of continuity in her growing ministry and leadership.
Her service reached far beyond the United States. A 1968 roster places her with the Y.W.C.A. in Kampala, Uganda, evidence of her international work and commitment to global service. In the 1970s, her name appears in radio listings from Massachusetts and Georgia, showing her continued engagement with civic and public affairs.
Then, at age 92, she made national headlines again — this time for something beautifully ordinary. It was Election Day, 2002. With a broken arm, a healing knee, and long lines ahead, Fannie Jeffrey bundled herself up, grabbed a folding chair, and went to vote. “As long as I can walk,” she told a reporter, “I’ll continue to vote.”
Fannie Annell Pitt Jeffrey passed away on September 8, 2004, in Mitchellville, Prince George’s County, Maryland.
Her life testifies to endurance — not just personal, but communal. As a young woman, she learned to stand upright in the face of racism and violence; as an adult, she used that strength to build institutions, mentor others, and model unshakable citizenship. From Tuskegee to Denver to Kampala, she carried her belief that education and faith could transform both the self and the world.
¹ Documented reports from the Greeley Daily Tribune and university archives confirm that in the late 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan held public marches and rallies in Greeley and that Black students at Colorado State Teachers College faced housing discrimination, social exclusion, and threats of violence. See: Greeley Daily Tribune, Aug. 10, 1924, and University of Northern Colorado Archives, Rising from the Past: Black Experiences at UNC (archival exhibit, 2020).
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