Sara A. Collins Fernandis (1863-1951)
Sara A. Fernandis, a contemporary
of Jane Addams, founded the first Black Social Settlement House
in the United States in Washington, D.C. and received her MSW
degree from New York University.
Hers was a life long career of organizing social welfare and
public health activities in the segregated Black communities
of the period. She organized the Women's Cooperative Civic League
in Baltimore which worked for improved sanitation and health
conditions in Black neighborhoods and became the first Black
social worker employed by the Baltimore Health Department in
the early 1900's. Her greatest achievement was perhaps living
to see her long held goal realized .. that of "establishing
the public purpose."
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