Hunt, Ida Gibbs, 1862-1957

da Alexander Gibbs Hunt (November[1] 16, 1862 – December 19, 1957)[2] was an advocate of racial and gender equality,[3] and co-founded one of the first YWCAs in Washington, D.C. for African-Americans in 1905.[2] She was the daughter of Judge Mifflin Wistar Gibbs,[4] the wife of William Henry Hunt, and a longtime friend of W. E. B. Du Bois.[5]

Ida Alexander Gibbs was born on November 16, 1862 in Victoria, British Columbia.[2] Mifflin Wistar Gibbs was her father. Ida's father was one of the wealthiest African-Americans in the United States in the late nineteenth century.[6] Harriet Gibbs Marshall was her sister. Their left California during the Gold Rush because of the race badges they were forced to wear and moved en masse to Victoria.[7]

In the 1860s, Gibbs moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where her mother, Maria Ann (Alexander), had studied at Oberlin College.[8]

Gibbs studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (1872-1876) and Oberlin Public Schools (1876-c. 1879). Afterwards, she completed Oberlin College's Preparatory Department and earned a bachelor of arts degree in English as a boarding student.[8]

At Oberlin College, she completed a classical and scientific academic course in the Department of Philosophy and the Arts as part of the first class of black women to graduate from the school in 1884 alongside Mary Church Terrell and Anna Julia Cooper.[1] Gibbs was also elected the president of the Oberlin Literacy Society.[9] In 1892, she received an MA degree.[8] Oberlin College was the first college to accept and equally treat both African-American men and women.[6]

On April 12, 1904, Gibbs married William Henry Hunt (diplomat) at #14 N Street, NW in Washington, D.C.

Career
Academic
Ida taught Latin and mathematics before her marriage.[10][2]She had to leave her teaching job upon marriage because until 1920, married women in the public school system in Washington, D.C. were not deemed appropriate teachers for young children.[6]

She taught at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Armstrong Manual Training High School in Washington, D.C., and M Street High School, a prestigious African American college preparatory school in Washington, D.C.[4][2] In the 1920's, M Street High School, later renamed Dunbar High School, had four African-American women who had PhDs, Ida Gibbs being one of them, which brought a lot of attention and traffic to the school.[6]

Promoting black education, civil rights and woman's suffrage, Gibbs made her mark as an educator and Pan-Africanist.

Ida Alexander Gibbs Hunt, 1918
Civil rights activism
Gibbs pursued her civil activism in a variety of ways. The Paris Peace Conference was the beginning of Gibbs being recognized as a political agent, not just a diplomat’s wife.[11] Internationally, she helped support W.E.B. DuBois in organizing many Pan-African Congresses[12] and supported the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.[13] Gibbs encouraged W.E.B. Du Bois to come to France where she was living in order to advocate for racial inequality globally.[11] Gibbs introduced Du Bois to black, French legislator, Blais Diagne, who pushed the French government for approval of the Pan-African Congress of 1919.[11] W.E.B. DuBois relied on Gibbs for her fluency in French, her organizational work, and her political connections.[11] Gibbs acted as the primary translator at the 1919 Paris Pan-African Congress.[14] She also advocated for world disarmament and for the appointment of black representatives at the 1923 London Third Pan-African Congress in a paper entitled “The Colored Races and the League of Nations" and along with W.E.B. DuBois, she co-chaired the Conference's Executive Committee.[15][2][16] Nationally she was involved in the Niagara Movement and well as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Gibbs was also active in Red Cross, both in France and in the United States, Club Franco-Etranger, the Book Lover’s Club, the Bethel Literary Society, Washington Welfare Association, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.[17] After her marriage, Gibbs accompanied her husband on his diplomatic assignments, including Liberia, France, Madagascar, and Guadeloupe.[2] Through her travels with her husband, Gibbs developed an international perspective on racial justice.[13]

After World War I, Gibbs began to write for The Crisis under the pen name Iola Gibson.[1]

Gibbs published articles in the Journal of Negro History and in the Negro History Bulletin which include “The Price of Peace” (1938), “Civilization and the Darker Races” (n.d.), and the “Recollection of Frederick Douglas” (1953).[17] Her writing allowed her to share her ideas of racial progress and reform that she learned from her experienced living on three continents.[17]

She organized the first Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) for black women.[12] Gibbs also became a board member of Phyllis Wheatley YWCA.[17]

Death
Ida Gibbs Hunt died in Washington, D.C. on December 19, 1957.[2]

Ida Alexander Gibbs Hunt, teacher, Pan-Africanist and civil rights leader, was born on November 16, 1862 in Victoria, British Columbia. Her parents were Mifflin Wistar Gibbs and Maria Alexander. Ida Gibbs studied in the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1872 to 1876. She then went to local public schools from 1876 to 1879. For her senior year of high school, Gibbs attended the Oberlin College’s Preparatory Department and stayed on as a college student. She completed her college education at Oberlin College in 1884, receiving both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English. One of her friends at Oberlin College was the famous civil rights and women’s rights leader, Mary Church Terrell. The two graduated in the same graduating class in 1884.

At Oberlin, Gibbs was enrolled in the “gentlemen’s course” or classical course of study in order to obtain a bachelor’s degree. The program included courses in Latin, Greek, modern European languages, literature, philosophy, science, and advanced mathematics. She was one of the first African American women to receive a bachelor’s degree in an area heretofore dominated by men.

After college, Gibbs taught at M Street High School in Washington, D.C., a prestigious African American college preparatory school, and at Florida A&M College in Tallahassee. She retired from teaching in 1904 when she married William Henry Hunt whom she met in 1897 when her father, Mifflin Gibbs, was U.S Counsel in Madagascar. Hunt, a career diplomat, had served as Mifflin Gibbs’s clerk in that post. After their marriage Ida Gibbs Hunt accompanied her husband on all his assignments. Hunt’s assignments included Liberia, France, Madagascar, and Guadeloupe. When William Hunt retired as a U.S. Consul, the couple settled down in Washington, D.C.

Despite her husband’s overseas assignments, Ida Hunt continued to be active in the civil rights movement. In 1905, she joined a handful of black women in founding the first Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Washington, D.C. for African Americans. She participated in the Niagara Movement, the Femmes de France, the Bethel Literary Society, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Washington Welfare Association, the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, and the Red Cross.

While traveling abroad with her husband, Ida Gibbs Hunt published various articles and wrote reviews on literary and cultural themes. She also wrote and gave speeches in support of peace, women’s suffrage, and civil rights for African Americans. She was able to promote her ideals internationally, an influence no doubt from her husband and father who had been diplomats. Ida Hunt was the assistant secretary for the Second Pan-African Congress in Paris in 1919. She delivered a paper entitled “The Coloured Races and the League of Nations” at the Third Pan-African Congress in London in 1923 and co-chaired the Conference’s Executive Committee with W.E.B. DuBois. Ida Gibbs Hunt died in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 19, 1957.