Eva Roberta Coles Boone

Eva Roberta Coles Boone (1880 - 1902) was an African-American teacher and Baptist missionary from Charlottesville, Virginia, who served with her husband Clinton Caldwell Boone in what was then the Congo Free State, now the Congo.

Eva Roberta Coles Boone
Born
Eva Roberta Coles

(1880-01-08)January 8, 1880
Charlottesville, Virginia
DiedDecember 8, 1902(1902-12-08) (aged 22)
Palaballa, Congo Free State
NationalityAmerican
OccupationEducator, Missionary
Spouse(s)
Clinton Caldwell Boone
​
​
(m. 1901)​

Early life

Eva Roberta Coles was born January 8, 1880, in Charlottesville, Virginia.[1][2][3] Coles attended Hartshorn Memorial College, the first college in the world for women of color.[1][2][4] She graduated in 1899.[2][1]

Career and family

After graduation, Coles returned to Charlottesville to teach.[1][2] In 1901, Coles married Clinton Caldwell Boone,[1] who had attended seminary at Virginia Union University, located a block north of Hartshorn, and earned his divinity degree in 1900.[2] The son of a minister, he was born and grew up in Hertford County, North Carolina.

Boone and her husband received an appointment to the mission field, supported by the American Baptist Missionary Union and the Lott Carey Foreign Mission Convention.[2][3] They arrived at the Palabala station in the Katanga province of the Congo Free State on May 24, 1901.[5]

At this time, it was unusual and controversial for American religious organizations to offer people of color missionary opportunities to serve in Africa.[6] At the Palabala station, she taught kindergarten,[7][3] administered medical treatment, and organized a sewing circle for the women of the village.[2][3] She tried to teach women to sew, but in the culture of the Kongo people, men traditionally dominated this work. She gradually worked to change cultural taboos against women sewing.[3] The women of the village called her "Mama Bunu".[2][1]

Coles died of a venomous bite on December 8, 1902 in Palaballa, Congo Free State (now part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo).[7][2] She and her husband had already suffered the death of their child as an infant.

References
  1. Hylton, Raymond Pierre (2014). Virginia Union University. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781439647660. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  2. Culpepper, Reginald. "Eva Roberta Coles-Boone". HBCU Connect. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  3. edited by Larry G. Murphy, J. Gordon Melton, Gary L. Ward (20 November 2013). Encyclopedia of African American Religions. Routledge. ISBN 9781135513450. Retrieved 16 April 2018.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  4. "Eva Boone, a dedicated teacher". African American Registry. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  5. edited by Vaughn J. Walston, Robert J. Stevens (2003). African-American Experience in World Mission: A Call Beyond Community, Volume 1. William Carey Library Publishers. p. 42. ISBN 978-0878086092.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  6. Rogers, Jaye (2006). "Ye Are All One Missionaries in the Congo and the Dynamics o f Race and Gender, 1890-1925. Cincinnati, Ohio: Dissertation, Union Institute and University.
  7. Perkins, Claude Grandford. "Virginia Union's First 150 Years: A bridge to intellectual freedom and equality". Richmond Times-Dispatch. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
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