North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College of The Colored Race - Florence A. Garrett
She was one of the last three women to graduate earning her degree from A&T in 1902 until women were readmitted in 1928.
Photograph: A small, brown, Georgian-style, two-story cottage in the center of campus was named in her honor in 1938 as the Florence Garrett Practice House. It was the center of home economic studies for decades. In more recent years, it was used by University Relations and The A&T Register newspaper.
Florence A. Garrett (~1860 – 1916)
A schoolteacher, prohibitionist and lecturer, Earning her degree in 1902, Florence A. Garret was one of the last three women to graduate from A&T before a 26-year period in which the college ceased to be co-educational until women were readmitted in 1928.
She was a schoolteacher in Greensboro at the Percy Street Colored Graded School where fellow alumnus H.H. Falkener was principal.
A member of the Thurman Women Christian Tempe France Union, she was an outspoken opponent of alcohol consumption. In 1886, she delivered a speech to an audience of white female temperance workers, and was said to have been the first Black woman in North Carolina to address a white female audience.
Garrett was born in Wake County, N.C., the daughter of Benjamin and Sabra Brown of Wake County, N.C. In 1878, she married George W. Garrett, a longtime custodian for the Guilford County Courthouse in Greensboro. They were married until his death in 1912.
She began working for Guilford County Schools around 1880. She was also the co-founder of the African-American Greensboro Chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), the first chapter for black women in the nation. In 1886, she made a famed speech at a statewide WCTU meeting, and she is believed to be the first woman of color in North Carolina to address a white female audience.
Florence continued her education at Bennett College graduating in 1894. It is unknown exactly when she started attending the A&M College for the Colored Race. While studying at A&M, she continued to teach at the Percy Street School. Garrett graduated in the class of 1902 along with Mrs. Hannah A. Bullock, a practicing nurse in Greensboro. During the time that A&M was not co-educational, female school teachers could attend the A&M College Summer School sessions for professional development, and Garrett did so.
After more than 30 years of teaching, Garrett died at her home on East Market Street in 1916. In her will, she bequeathed funds to A&T College. An endowment was announced in 1922.
On November 6, 1938, the Garrett House was dedicated as one of the first two campus buildings named after a woman, the other being the Annie W. Holland dormitory.
Source: A & T The Brick-and-Mortar Legacies of Four Leading Women
By Todd Simmons / 03/31/2021 Academic Affairs, Student Affairs