Evening star., 1937-08-15
Anna Murray Nears Her 80th
Birthday Still Aiding Her Race
Woman WhO Obtained
Kindergartens Keeps
W0rking.
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

| A college woman, at a time when It
was q rare distinction for one Of her
race, the mother Of five sons, all
college graduates who have achieved
eminence in their respective fields. is
the widow Of Daniel S. Murray, who
was an assistant librarian in the
Library Of Congress and the compiler
Of the Historical and Biographical
Encyclopedia OF the Colored Race
Throughout the World. The success
full proponept Of kindergartens for
colored children and Of kinder
garten training school for colored
teachers is Anna Evans Murray. now
approaching her s0th birthday at
her residence. s34 S street
Alert brown eyes that seemingly
have lost none OF the eagerness Of
youth look out from under snowy
white hair as she reminisces.
But her interests are not confined
to the past. With enthusiasm she
tells OF her present consuming In
terest. the continuance OF the nursery
schools as part OF the public school
system and of her recent plea at a
congressional hearing for the estab-
lishment OF health center at First
and Lawton streets. This is a neigh
borhood where the highest percentage
OF tuberculosis deaths occur among
the colored people here The pur-
chase Of additional land in the vicinity
OF the Douglas and Simmons Schools
for playground facilities she also ad-
vocates as an aid to lessening trafic
accidents.
A part of each day she gives to
keeping up to date her late husband s
encyclopedia Of the colored race for
which authoritative research. he was
the recipient of numerous honorary
degrees during his lifetime Every
year an increasing number Of college
and university professors seek out Mrs
Murray for access to her husbands
papers. Offers for their purchase and
utilization in libraries outside Wash.
lngton she has consistently refused
with the thought that they should be
! more properly available in the Ma.
tion's Capital, where her husband
spent over half a century OF his life
and to which he was so deeply de-
voted.
Graduated From Oberlin.
From Oberlin College she came to
Washington in 1873 at the age OF II
to accept public school position
when James Ormond Wilson. whose
name is honored by Wilson Teachers
College, was superintendent OF schools
Five wears Of teaching experience in
the old Mott School in the district
then designated as the country" con-
vinced her of the necessity for free
klndergartens for her race and for
especially trained teachers to direct
| them.
| This conviction grew with her mar
riage and her own family Of seven
children. 1t was strengthened during
the first annual convention here Of
the National League of Colored Wom-
| en-, which was likewise the initial
group of colored women in the United
States to be organized outside their
| respective churches.
When its sessions. held in the Fiji
teenth Street Presbyterian Church on
the site Of the present of1ces OF the
B. F. Saul Co.. had come to an end,
she had pledged herself to getting
public school kindergartens for COL
ored children.
As chairman OF the leagues Educa-
ton Committee. Mrs Murray, in the
Fall Of 1895, motivated the establish
ment of the pioneer free kindergarten
classes for colored children in the
| city
The first class for training colored
kindergarten workers, Mrs. MURRAY
says, was conducted at the Friends
Church or Meeting House on l street,
soon to be torn down for the Doctor S
Hospital, between the two medical
buildings now standing on this square
between Eighteenth and Nineteenth
streets. Ali five of the young women
who took this course started kinder
gartens on their own initiative at
private expense.
In 1900, as member Of the Moth
ers' Congress, she secured their interest
and cooperation in her project
Through. this contact Mrs. Phoebe A.
Hearst, wife Of the Senator from Cali.
fornia. became interested to the ex-
tent OF supplying house on K street.
between Twenty-fourth and Twenty
NTH streets, with a caretaker, model
school and two teachers for the free
instruction OF colored children of
kindergarten age in that vicinity. So
successful was this endeavor that an
other and larger house was eventually
taken over on the same street. This
experiment became a part OF the Ma
tional kindergarten Training Schoo
and continued under the patronage
Of Mrs. Hearst until 1905.
Made Plea Before Committee.
The era Of private philanthropy
for free kindergarten instruction in
the City Of Washington had then COME
to an end she recounts, and II thu
hopes of many of us were to be real.
lied it would be necessary for Con.
sress to make an appropriation. A
bill carrying such a measure failet
OF passage. Then it was that be.
came instrumental in securing such
legislation. My husband had been ar
employe at the Capitol. Through hi.
efforts a hearing was secured for m,
before the Senate Appropriation,
Committee, Of which Senator Allison
Of Iowa was chairman. As I arose h,
said, Be brief
I thought rapidly and managed tt
put my plea in three minutes. Wher
had finished Senator Allison said
You have made noble plea for you
race Later he sent word to me tina
he had permitted an appropria ton o
$4,000 for colored kindergartens {,