Hedgeman, Anna Arnold, 1899-1990

Anna Arnold Hedgeman (July 5, 1899 – January 17, 1990) was an African-American civil rights leader, politician, educator, and writer. Under President Harry Truman, Hedgeman served as executive director of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission, having worked on his presidential campaign.[1] She was also appointed to the cabinet of New York City mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr., becoming the first African-American woman to hold a cabinet post in New York. Anna Arnold was born in Marshall, Iowa, In 1918, Hedgeman graduated from Anoka High School and continued her education at Hamline University, a Methodist College in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She was the college’s first African-American student. In 1922, Hedgeman became the first African-American graduate, having earned a B.A. degree in English. In 1936, she married Merritt Hedgeman, For two years, Hedgeman taught English and History at Rust College, She worked for the YWCA as an executive director in Ohio, New Jersey, Harlem, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. All of these branches were segregated.

Hedgeman also served as the executive director of the National Committee for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission, Assistant Dean of Women at Howard University, associate editor for the New York Age, a consultant for the public relations department of Fuller Products Company, and on Harry Truman's 1948 presidential campaign.[3] Throughout the 1930s, Hedgeman remained active in protest activities, her militancy resulting in a forced resignation from the directorship of the black branch of the Brooklyn YWCA.[5] In 1944, she became the executive secretary of the National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC). In 1946, Hedgeman served as assistant dean of women at Howard University.[3]

In 1954, she became the first African-American woman to hold a mayoral cabinet position in the history of New York City. In 1963, Hedgeman was an organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom In 1966 she became a co-founder of the National Organization for Women. She died on January 17, 1990, in Harlem Hospital at the age of 90.[1]

Anna Arnold Hedgeman (1899-1990) spent more than six decades working in the fields of interfaith and civil rights organizing, government service, and urban affairs. The author of two memoirs, The Trumpet Sounds (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964) and The Gift of Chaos (Oxford, 1977), Hedgeman was a pioneer in opening civil service and political jobs to African-American women.

Raised in Minnesota, Hedgeman was the first African-American graduate of Hamline University in St. Paul. From 1924 to 1933, she served as an administrator for the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) in Ohio, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, including five years as membership secretary of the Harlem branch. She married musician Merritt Hedgeman in 1933.

During the New Deal and early years of World War II, Hedgeman worked for the Emergency Relief Bureau, worked as a consultant on racial problems for New York City, and monitored race relations for the Federal Office of Civilian Defense. In 1944, the Hedgemans relocated to Washington, D.C., where she became executive director of A. Philip Randolph's National Council for a Permanent Fair Employment Practices Commission. After working on Harry Truman's presidential election in 1948, Hedgeman was appointed to an administrative position in the Federal Security Agency.

From 1954 to 1958, Hedgeman was a mayoral aide in the cabinet of Robert F. Wagner, Jr. As was often the case throughout her career, Hedgeman was the first African-American woman appointed to this post. From 1958 to 1962, she worked briefly in business and also covered civic and international affairs as a radio commentator and New York Age columnist.

In the 1960s, Hedgeman was at the center of national civil rights organizing and was the first female member on the administrative planning committee for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Returning to ecumenical work from 1963 to 1967, Hedgeman served in several capacities for the National Council of Churches' Commission on Religion and Race, where she coordinated efforts of clergy and lay leaders to win passage and ensure implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Hedgeman started a consulting service and throughout the 1970s worked as a freelance specialist on interfaith activism, urban affairs, and black studies. She also continued her commitment to public service as a member of countless community committees and government advisory bodies until her death in 1990.