Mary Ellen Henderson

Mary Ellen Henderson (September 18, 1885 – February 4, 1976) was an African-American educator and civil rights activist in the mid-1900s. She is most famous for her work desegregating living spaces in Falls Church, working to build better facilities for black students in Falls Church, Virginia and starting the CCPL (Colored Citizens Protective League), the first rural branch of the NAACP. Early life and family Mary Ellen Henderson (née Meriwether) was born in Washington, D.C., on September 18, 1885, to Mary Louise Robinson Meriwether and James Henry Meriwether. Both of her parents had a college education. Her mother, Mary Louise, graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio, went on to teach at the first high school for black students, later known as the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, in Washington, D.C., and worked as a social activist. Mary Ellen's father, James, graduated from Howard University. He later practiced law in Washington D.C. and served on the board of trustees at Howard until his death in 1906. Her sister, Sarah Meriwether Nutter, was also an educator, activist and a founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. Career and activism Mary Ellen, nicknamed "Miss Nellie" by her students, originally taught grades four through seven at James E. Lee Elementary School, a segregated two-room schoolhouse for black children. She accepted the job to prevent the school from being closed down due to a lack of adequately trained teachers. The school had no running water or custodial staff, so Henderson brought water from a neighbor's well and cleaned the classroom daily. The building also did not have a central heating system or indoor sanitary facilities, resources that the white school did have. Henderson fought for a better school for African-American children, conducting a study on the funding inequalities between black and white schools in Fairfax County, Our Disgrace and Shame: School Facilities for Negro Children in Fairfax County. Henderson was persuasive, and in 1948, Fairfax opened the new James E. Lee Elementary School, a six-room school, complete with the additions of an auditorium, library, clinic, and cafeteria. Henderson was appointed as principal of the new school, a position she held for thirty years. The students Mary Ellen Henderson taught were known for their high achievements, and received praise from their high school teachers.