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Ethel Cuff Black
Ethel Cuff Black (October 17, 1890 – September 17, 1977) was an American educator and one of the founders of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.[1] She was the first African-American school teacher in Richmond County, New York.[2] Early lifeEthel L. Cuff was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1890.[1][2] Her father was Richard Cuff, a banker and business owner, which allowed her to grow up in the top tier of the African-American community.[1][2] Her grandparents were landowners and second-generation freedmen.[2] Her maternal grandfather was a Civil War veteran.[3][1] She attended public schools in Wilmington.[1] She attended the Industrial School for Colored Youth in Bordentown, New Jersey.[4]  She attended Howard University, graduating with a degree in education in 1915.[1][5] At Howard, she was a member of the choir, the chair of the Howard chapter of the YWCA, and vice president of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[1][6][2] In 1913, she and 21 other sorority sisters voted to withdraw and from Alpha Kappa Alpha and establish a new sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, that was devoted to community service and social activism.[7][1][8][4] She was the new sorority's vice president.[4] Cuff marched in the Woman Suffrage Procession on March 3, 1913, with Delta Sigma Theta; it was the only black organization in the Washington, D.C. march.[4] CareerAfter college, Black taught in Kentucky; Sedalia, Missouri, and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.[1][9][2] She became the first African-American teacher at Public School 108 (P. S. 108) in Richmond Hills, Queens, New York, teaching there for more than 27 years.[1][10] Black worked for the United States Census Bureau in Washington, D.C. from 1920 to 1922 and in Trenton, New Jersey from the summer of 1928 to the summer of 1928.[9] She became a faculty member of Delaware State College from 1930 to her retirement in 1957.[1][9] HonorsBlack was honored by Delta Sigma Theta at its 60th National Founders Day ceremony.[9] Although she was too ill to attend the ceremony, it was recorded for her.[9] After her death, the Wilmington, Delaware alumnae chapter established a local Kiwanis library in her honor.[11] In 2013, she was included in a United States Senate resolution that congratulated Delta Sigma Theta for 100 years of service.[12] In 2023, the eastern end of Foch Boulevard, between 170th Street and Merrick Boulevard, near Roy Wilkins Park, was co-named in her honor. Personal lifeBlack lived in Jamaica, New York for forty years.[10] She married real estate agent David Horton Black in 1939.[13][2] He pre-deceased her.[9] In June 1951, she helped formed the Queens Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.[2] In 1974, she moved into the Franklin Nursing Home in Flushing, New York.[10] In 1977, she died there at the age of 86.[10] Her funeral services were held at St. Albans Congressional Church.[10] She was buried in Cypress Hill Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.[10][14] References
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