Title
To designate the first block at the intersection of West Clay Street and East Clay Street in honor of the late Rosa Dixon Bowser. (2nd District)
Body
WHEREAS, upon information and belief of Council, Rosa Dixon Bowser was born enslaved on January 7, 1855, in Amelia County, Virginia, and came to Richmond during grade school where she trained at the Richmond Colored Normal School through the Freedmen's Bureau; and
WHEREAS, upon information and belief of Council, Rosa Dixon Bowser became the first Black educator with Richmond Public Schools in 1872 and, during her career, she served as supervisor of teachers at the Baker School, taught at a local Young Men's Christian Association, and organized the precursor to the Virginia State Teachers Association, also known as the Virginia Teachers' Reading Circle, serving as president from 1890 to 1892; and
WHEREAS, upon information and belief of Council, Rosa Dixon Bowser was a respected community leader and was involved in several organizations including the Women's Christian Temperance Union, the Industrial Home School for Colored Girls, the Virginia Manual Labor School for Colored Boys, the Richmond Woman's League, the Virginia Colored Anti-Tuberculosis League, the National Association of Colored Women, the Woman's Department of the Negro Reformatory Association, the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, the National Federation of Afro-American Women, and the Committee on Domestic Science at the Hampton Negro Conferences; and
WHEREAS, upon information and belief of Council, among Rosa Dixon Bowser's other accomplishments and honors was being one of the first women to register to vote after the passing of the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and having the first branch of the Richmond Public Library for patrons of color named in her honor in 1925; and
WHEREAS, Rosa Dixon Bowser passed away on February 7, 1931, and is buried in t...
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