Josephine Turpin Washington

Josephine Turpin Washington (July 31, 1861 – March 17, 1949) was an African-American writer and teacher. A long-time educator and a frequent contributor, Washington devised articles to magazines and newspapers typically concerning some aspect of racism in America. Washington was a great-granddaughter of Mary Jefferson Turpin, a paternal aunt of Thomas Jefferson. Family Josephine Turpin was born in Goochland County, Virginia on July 31, 1861, the daughter of Augustus A. Turpin and Maria V. Crump. Her father was a son of a former African slave named Mary and her former enslaver Edwin Durock Turpin (1783–1868), a grandson of Mary Jefferson Turpin and a great-grandfather of Odette Harper Hines. In her 1995 book, All is Never Said: The Narrative of Odette Harper Hines (written with Judith Rollins), Hines reveals that Turpin fell in love with Mary not long after she arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana aboard a slave ship and became his property. Sometime later he took the very unusual step for the day and married her. According to Hines, her great-grandfather took care that their children received an education and also broke with common practice in allowing his slaves to learn basic reading, writing and arithmetic.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=i5BNcAYaNbcC&q=false Hines and Rollins All is Never Said: The Narrative of Odette Harper Hines", 1995, pp. 20-21, xviii] Retrieved December 3, 2013</ref> Early life Turpin was first educated at home and later at public schools probably in Goochland, Virginia. After her family relocated to Richmond, Virginia she attended the Richmond Institute, later known as the Richmond Theological Seminary. She was among the 1886 graduating class at Howard University where during summer breaks she clerked for Frederick Douglass, then recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia. After her graduation she taught mathematics at Howard University until her marriage in 1888 to Dr. Samuel Somerville Hawkins Washington brought her to Birmingham, Alabama. Educator Over her career Washington would serve on the faculties of Selma University, Tuskegee Institute, where her husband held the position of school physician, Alabama State University and Wilberforce University. She retired in 1934 after twenty years as dean of women at Wilberforce.