Portia Spennie Blackiston

Portia Spennie Blackiston
A young fair-skinned Black woman with dark hair, in profile, in an oval frame; she is wearing a strand of dark beads or stones
Portia Spennie Blackiston, from the 1924 yearbook of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute
Born
Portia Smiley Spennie

October 14, 1898
Virginia, U.S.
DiedNovember 2, 1973
Culver City, California, U.S.
OccupationEducator

Portia Smiley Spennie Blackiston (October 14, 1898 – November 2, 1973) was an American educator and clubwoman, trained in sewing, dressmaking, and millinery. She taught at West Virginia Collegiate Institute in the 1920s.

Early life and education

Portia Smiley Spennie was born in Virginia, the daughter of Edward H. Spennie and Susan Rix Spennie. Both of her parents attended Hampton Institute, and her father taught carpentry there.[1] She graduated from Hampton Institute in 1918, and completed a two-year course in dressmaking and millinery at Pratt Institute in 1920.[2][3]

Career

Blackiston taught sewing at Tuskegee Institute, and at a summer teachers' institute in Elizabeth City, North Carolina in 1921.[4][5] She taught domestic arts, including sewing,[6] at West Virginia Collegiate Institute in the 1920s,[7] with Exie Lee Hampton as one of her colleagues in the home economics department.[8][9]

In St. Louis, Blackiston was active in clubwork, especially in the Women's Auxiliary of the People's Hospital,[10][11] and in the Booklovers, one of the city's longest running women's literary clubs.[12] She was secretary of the Booklovers in 1937.[13] In 1955, she hosted a Booklovers meeting to discuss the Aeneid.[14]

Personal life and legacy

Spennie married German and Latin language scholar[15] and World War I veteran Harry Spencer Blackiston in 1923.[16] They had a daughter, also named Portia,[17] and a son, also named Harry.[18] They lived in St. Louis while Harry Sr. was a professor and dean at Harris-Stowe State University there.[18] Her husband died in 1970.[19] She lived with her son and his family in Los Angeles in her last years,[20] and died in 1973, aged 75 years, in Culver City, California.

In 2021, Portia Spennie Blackiston was among the suffragists of color featured in the Champlain Valley Suffrage Centennial Auto Tour, and the tour's accompanying booklet.[21][22]

References

  1. ^ "Edward Spennie, Retired Hampton Instructor, Dies". New Journal and Guide. 1950-10-14. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Graduates and Ex-Students". The Southern Workman. 50: 48. January 1921.
  3. ^ "450 Get Diplomas at Pratt Institute". Brooklyn Eagle. 1920-06-26. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
  4. ^ "Graduates and Ex-Students". The Southern Workman. 50: 380. August 1921.
  5. ^ Elizabeth City State Normal School (1920). Elizabeth City State Teachers College Catalogues. p. 7.
  6. ^ "From the Vocational Departments: Sewing" (PDF). The Institute Monthly. 15 (2): 13. December 1922. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2025-03-28. Retrieved 2025-08-14.
  7. ^ "W. Va. Collegiate Institute Opens". The New York Age. 1922-09-30. p. 7. Retrieved 2022-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ West Virginia Institute, El Ojo Archived 2024-06-05 at the Wayback Machine (1924 yearbook): 33.
  9. ^ List of Workers in Subjects Pertaining to Agriculture. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1922–1923. p. 76.
  10. ^ "Women's Auxiliary Gives Musical Tea". The St. Louis Argus. 1936-12-04. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Officers of Peoples Hospital Meeting". The St. Louis Argus. 1938-02-04. p. 12. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Booklovers Meet". New Pittsburgh Courier. 1947-05-17. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Booklovers Observe 30th Anniversary". The St. Louis Argus. 1937-05-07. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Booklovers Hold Monthly Meeting". The St. Louis American. 1955-11-24. p. 16. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Colored Boy Greatest Scholar of All Time; Graduated from University of Pa". The Philadelphia Tribune. 1920-06-19. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Marriages". The Southern Workman. 52: 513. October 1923.
  17. ^ "Weds in Phladelphia". The St. Louis American. 1949-09-29. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ a b Who's who in Colored America. Who's Who in Colored America Corporation. 1942. p. 57.
  19. ^ "Blackiston Funeral". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1970-09-10. p. 23. Retrieved 2022-05-23 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ^ "We're Tellin'". The St. Louis American. 1971-01-21. p. 4. Retrieved 2025-08-14 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ^ Caudell, Robin (March 24, 2022). "Suffragists of color highlighted in booklet". Press-Republican. Archived from the original on 2022-04-15. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  22. ^ "African-American Participants in the Women's Suffrage Struggle". The Peru Gazette. 2021-08-03. Archived from the original on 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
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