Maritcha Remond Lyons

Maritcha Remond Lyons
Maritcha Remond Lyons
Born	(1848-06-23)June 23, 1848 New York City, New York, United States
Died	January 28, 1929(1929-01-28) (aged 80) Brooklyn, New York, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	American educator Civic leader Writer
Years active	1892-1929
Notable work	Maritcha : A Remarkable Nineteenth-Century Girl

Maritcha Remond Lyons (May 23, 1848 – January 28, 1929) was an American educator, civic leader, feminist, and writer in New York City and Brooklyn, New York. She taught in public schools in Brooklyn for 48 years, and was the second black woman to serve in their system as an assistant principal,^[1] eventually becoming a principal. Lyons was a co-founder of the White Rose Mission in Manhattan's San Juan Hill district, which provided support to American migrants from the South and immigrants from the West Indies.

Early life

Lyons was born in New York City, the third of five children of Albro Lyons, Sr. and Mary Joseph Lyons (née Marshall).^[2] Her father was a graduate of the first African Free School in Manhattan, New York. The Lyons family lived in New York City's free black community and were, at one time, residents of Seneca Village. Lyons' parents operated a seamen's home and seamen's outfitting store that served also as a cover for the family's Underground Railroad activities. Though she was very ill as a child, Maritcha was eager to acquire an education. She wrote of herself that she developed a "love of study for study’s sake."^[3] Lyons attended Manhattan's Colored School No. 3, under the direction of Charles Reason, a former educator at Philadelphia's Institute for Colored Youth.

The Lyons' home was attacked several times during the New York City Draft Riots of July 1863. Lyons was a teenager at the time.^[4] She fled with her family to Salem, Massachusetts for a short time before returning to Brooklyn. Because of the ongoing danger, her parents sent the children to Providence, Rhode Island.

In 1865, Lyons was refused entry to the high school in Providence because she was African-American. The state had no high school for black children.^[4] The family successfully sued the state of Rhode Island in a campaign to bring an end to segregated schools. At the age of 16, she testified before the state legislature, "plead[ing] for the opening of the door of opportunity".^[5] Lyons later became the first African-American student to graduate from Providence High School.^[4]

Career

Teaching

After graduating from high school, Lyons returned to New York^[6][7][8] to accept a teaching position at Brooklyn's Colored School No. 1, the first African Free School in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. Colored School No. 1 was Brooklyn's first school for African-Americans, opened at the current site of the Walt Whitman Houses, one of the largest housing projects in New York City.^[9]

Lyons, in a teaching career that spanned fifty years, devoted herself to elementary education and became an assistant principal in the Brooklyn schools, including Public School No. 83. Lyons became a well-known lecturer and writer; she once won a debate against Ida B. Wells.^[10]

Activism

On October 5, 1892, Lyons and educator and activist Victoria Earle Matthews organized a testimonial dinner in New York’s Lyric Hall for Ida B. Wells and her anti-lynching campaign. They continued to work on this issue, founding the Women’s Loyal Union of New York and Brooklyn.

In February 1897, Lyons and Matthews founded the White Rose Mission, which operated from headquarters in Manhattan's San Juan Hill district. Members of the organization met boats at the city's piers and provided meals and lodging for migrants from the South and immigrants from the West Indies.^[11]

Memoir, writing and book

Lyons' memoir and photographs of herself and her family are included in the Harry A. Williamson Papers at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture of the New York Public Library.^[12] Her memoir was never published, but includes a breathtaking account of the sacking and burning of her family's home by a mob during the New York City Draft Riots of 1863. These riots were so destructive of black neighborhoods in Manhattan that many African Americans left the city permanently, some moving to Brooklyn for safety. It also descriptions Lyons wrote about her family's involvement in assisting escaping slaves as part of the Underground Railroad in her memoir, Memories of Yesterdays: All of Which I Saw and Part of Which I Was (1928).

A book was written about Lyons, Maritcha: A Remarkable Nineteenth-Century Girl, based on her memoir and writing.^[4]

In addition to her memoir, Lyons contributed eight biographical sketches to Hallie Quinn Brown's Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction (1926),^[12] which include sketches of Sarah H. Fayerweather (1802-1868) and Agnes J. Adams (1985-1923).^[13]

Personal life

Lyons lived in Brooklyn, with her brother and his family, until she died.^[7][8][14]

Family tree

Some of the family members include:
Please note capitalization of surnames is typically used in genealogy trees

Other

• Lyons Community School in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York was named after Lyons.^[3]

Works or publications

• Bolden, Tonya. Maritcha: A Remarkable Nineteenth-Century Girl. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2004. ISBN 978-0-810-95045-0 OCLC 163592738
• Williamson, Harry A. Henry Albro Williamson Collection. New York: New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 1970. OCLC 437118355
  • Henry Albro Williamson Collection Finding Aid (PDF)
  • Includes Lyons' unpublished memoir: Memories of Yesterdays: All of Which I Saw and Part of Which I Was (1928)
• Lyons, Maritcha Redmond. "Sarah H. Fayerweather," "Agnes J. Adams," and 6 others. Brown, Hallie Q. Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction. Chapel Hill, N.C.: Academic Affairs Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2000. ISBN 978-0-195-05237-4 OCLC 45351693

See also

• New York City Draft Riots
• White Rose Mission
• San Juan Hill, Manhattan

References

Further reading

• Dodson, Howard, Christopher Paul Moore, and Roberta Yancy. The Black New Yorkers: The Schomburg Illustrated Chronology. New York: John Wiley, 2000. p. 117. ISBN 978-0-471-29714-7 OCLC 39615641
• Mather, Frank Lincoln. Who's Who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale Research Co, 1976. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-810-34247-7 OCLC 2780796
• Peterson, Carla L. Black Gotham: A Family History of African Americans in Nineteenth Century New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011. p. 349. ISBN 978-0-300-16255-4 OCLC 711865478
• Smith, Jessie Carney, ed. "Maritcha R. Lyons." Notable Black American Women Book II Book II. Detroit: Gale Research, 1996. pp. 417–420. ISBN 978-0-810-39177-2 OCLC 33839389
• Whitehead, K. Wise. "Lyons, Maritcha R." Gates, Henry Louis, and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. The African American National Biography. Vol. 5. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 426–427. ISBN 978-0-195-30173-1 OCLC 679300106, 5163773815

External links

• A. Williamson papers, 1831-1965 at New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture