Ione Wood Gibbs

Ione Elveda Wood Gibbs (c. 1871 – June 1923) was an American educator, journalist, and clubwoman. She served as vice-president of the National Association of Colored Women from 1912 to 1914.

Ione Wood Gibbs
Ione E. Wood Gibbs, from a 1910 publication
Born
Ione Elveda Wood

c. 1871
Burlington, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedJune 1923
Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Other namesIone E. Wood, Ione E. Gibbs (after marriage)
OccupationJournalist, clubwoman
Years active1888–1914

Early life

Ione Elveda Wood was born in Burlington, New Jersey, the daughter of George Wood and Emma Simmons Wood.[1] She attended high school in Atlantic City. Her uncle William J. Simmons was the president of Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute, so she attended that school and trained as a teacher, earning her degree in 1888.[2]

Career

Wood was an instructor at the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute while she was still a teenage student there. She wrote freelance articles, and from 1888 to 1891 was on the editorial staff of Our Women and Children, a Baptist women's magazine run by her uncle.[2] "Miss Ione E. Wood ranks today among the foremost of our women", commented one contemporary writer, "first, from the standpoint of acknowledged intellectual ability to write; second, as an earnest educator and race advocate".[3]

After marriage, Gibbs was active in the Ada Sweet Pioneer Club, a literary and musical club in Minneapolis.[4] In 1905, she served as the first president of the Minnesota State Federation of Afro-American Women's Clubs, after black women's groups were refused membership in the existing Minnesota Federation of Women's Clubs.[5][6] From 1912 to 1914, she was vice-president of the National Association of Colored Women.[1][7][8] She wrote an essay, "Woman's Part in the Uplift of the Negro Race" (1907), which was published nationally, and is still occasionally reprinted.[9]

Personal life

Wood married restaurant owner Jasper Gibbs in 1890. They had five sons: Jasper, Hiram, Morris, Mark, and Wendell. They resided in Minneapolis.[10][11] Wood died in 1923.[12]

References
  1. Frank Lincoln Mather, ed., Who's Who of the Colored Race (1915): 114.
  2. Irvine Garland Penn, The Afro-American Press and Its Editors (Willey & Company 1891): 410–413.
  3. Monroe Alphus Majors, Noted Negro Women: Their Triumphs and Activities (Donohue and Henneberry 1893): 237.
  4. Donald Ross, "African American and Jewish Women's Clubs in Minnesota" Reading, Meeting and Reforming: Women's Study Clubs in Minnesota, 1880–1942
  5. "Form Own Society" The Saint Paul Globe (February 9, 1905): 2. via Newspapers.com
  6. "State Federation" The Appeal (August 3, 1907): 3. via Newspapers.com
  7. "Mrs. Ione Gibbs Visits Des Moines" The Bystander (March 21, 1913): 1. via Newspapers.com
  8. "National Association of Colored Women Hampton Meeting" African Methodist Episcopal Church Review (October 1912): 166.
  9. Ione E. Gibbs, "Woman’s Part in the Uplift of the Negro Race" The Colored American Magazine (March 1907): pp. 264–267; in Teresa Zackodnik, ed., Black Feminist Organizing (Routledge July 2007). ISBN 9780415395373
  10. ”Minneapolis” ‘’The Appeal’’ (August 23, 1890): 1. via Newspapers.com
  11. "A Fantasy in Iron" Hennepin History Museum Blog (January 9, 2018).
  12. "Mrs. Ione E. Gibbs, Prominent Club Woman, Dies in Minneapolis" The Appeal (June 16, 1923): 1.
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