Lord Byron Fernando Professor Coleman English 101 ( 1286) 3 October 2011 Extra Credit - Anita Florence Hemmings

Anita Florence Hemmings was Vassar Colleges' first known Multiracial graduate with Black ancestry 40 years before the college begin admitting African Americans to the university. Hemmings has a clear olive complexion, heavy black hair and eyebrows and coal black eyes," a Boston newspaper wrote of Hemmings in 1897. With only a few weeks until graduation Hemmings roommate became suspicious about her background and voiced her "concerns" to her father, who hired a private investigator who followed Hemmings to her hometown of Boston, where her full heritage was uncovered. "We know our daughter went to Vassar as a white girl and stayed there assuch. As long as she conducted herself as a lady she never thought it necessary to proclaim the fact that her parents were mulattoes" said Hemmings parents. When the story of Anita's heritage broke, Hemmings father told reporters she had proven herself an impressive student, mastering Latin, ancient Greek, and French, and, as a soprano in the college choir, had been invited to sing solo recitals at the local churches in Poughkeepsie. She was described by her classmates as an "exotic beauty," and many believed her heritage was Native American. Hemmings, who was devastated by the scandal, returned Boston after graduating from Vassar. She worked for several years as a cataloguer in the Boston Public Library. In 1903, she married Dr. Andrew Jackson Love, a physician practicing in New York City. The couple settled in Manhattan and lived as solely White. Curiously, a Boston newspaper that interviewed Hemmings when she was working at the public library argued that the "singularly serious, frank, earnest girl" never made any attempt to deny her African background while in her hometown. Andrew and Anita Hemmings Love, although she, raised her children as solely White, sending them to the demanding Horace Mann School in Man-

hattan and to an exclusive whites only camp in Cape Cod. , Anitas daughter, Ellen Love discovered the truth about her racial heritage only by tracking down her own grandmother, Dora, on Marthas Vineyard in 1923. Ellen took the secret to her grave, telling not even her own family. Today Hemmings is listed as Vassar's first Black graduate, while this is partially true, Hemmings is actually the institutions first Mixed Race or Multiracial graduate with Black ancestry.

(SOURCE: "Anita Hemmings - Multiracial Heritage Week." Welcome - Multiracial Heritage Week. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Oct. 2011. <http://www.multiracialheritageweek.com/anita_hemmings.html> )