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."