Topics Related to Women

On May 16, 1804, Salem Academy opened the doors of its new dormitory, South Hall, to students and officially transitioned from a day school to a boarding school.

The Moravians had established the all-girls’ school in 1772 soon after the first women trekked 500 miles from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, to join the community at Salem. One of their number, Elisabeth Oesterlein, became the first teacher at the school. The unmarried women of Salem, known as “single sisters,” governed the academy during this early period.

On April 6, 1959, pioneering photographer Bayard Wootten died in New Bern.

Born in New Bern in 1875, Wootten left the area to attend college in Greensboro and then teach. She returned to New Bern to help family members. Once back, she did design work to support her family, eventually creating Pepsi-Cola’s first trademarked logo. She embraced photography in 1904 and, after displaying her first photograph that year, orders for her work began to roll in.

On March 4, 1861, successful African American dressmaker Elizabeth Keckley met soon-to-be First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln for the first time at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C.

It was the day of Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration, and Mary was too busy with plans for the festivities to talk with Keckley, who was recommended by a friend. After a brief meeting at the White House the next day, Mary hired Keckley.

On February 27, 1964, black feminist activist, scholar and educator Anna Julia Haywood Cooper died at the age of 105.

Born enslaved in 1858 in Raleigh, Cooper graduated from St. Augustine’s Normal School and then earned a B.A. and an M.A. in mathematics from Oberlin College in Ohio. She taught for a few years in Raleigh before moving to Washington, D.C., to teach there.

On February 21, 1933, Nina Simone, often called the “high priestess of soul,” was born in the small town of Tryon in Polk County.

Determined to become one of the first highly-successful African-American concert pianists, Simone spent a summer at the famed Julliard School after graduating high school in Asheville in 1950. Denied admission to music school in Philadelphia, Simone took menial jobs there.

On February 13, 1943, the first women to sign up for non-clerical duties enlisted in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve.

On February 11, 1813, freedom seeker, writer and abolitionist Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton.

Jacobs spent her childhood unaware of her station in life but, when her white mistress, Margaret Horniblow, died in 1825, she and her brother John were willed to Horniblow’s 3-year-old niece, Mary Norcom, and were placed under the control of Norcom’s father, Dr. James Norcom.

On February 11, 1917, Annie Oakley exhibited her skills as a markswoman in Pinehurst.

Born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio in 1860, Oakley first demonstrated that she was skilled with a gun while hunting game as a teenager. She was discovered after defeating Frank Butler, a well-known sharpshooter, in an exhibition in Cincinnati in 1876, and married Butler soon thereafter.

On February 10, 1937, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain.