Adena C. E. Minott Explained

Adena C. E. Minott
Other Names:A. C. E. Minott, Adena Minott-Hinds
Birth Date:about 1879
Birth Place:Jamaica
Death Date:April 13, 1955
Death Place:New York, New York, US
Occupation:Educator, consultant

Adena Clothilda Eugenie Minott (born about 1879 – April 13, 1955[1]) was a Jamaican-born American educator and consultant. She was the only Black woman to be a fellow of the American Institute of Phrenology.

Early life and education

Minott was born in Allmantown, Jamaica, the daughter of John Thomas Minott and Leonora Green Minott. She moved to the United States as a child, and was educated in New York City, where suffragist Mary E. Eato was one of her teachers.[2] [3] One of her brothers was Harlem real estate broker J. Anthony Minott (1886 –1922).[4]

Minott earned a bachelor's and a master's degree from the McDonnall College of Phrenology and Psychology in Washington in 1899. with further studies at the Fowler and Wells Institute of Phrenology and Anthropology[5] in New York until 1903.[6] In 1921, she was awarded a Doctor of Metaphysics degree from the College of Metaphysics in St. Louis.[7]

Career

In 1906, Minott was founder and principal of the Clio School of Mental Sciences in New York,[8] promising "a thorough and practical course of instruction ... in phrenology, physiognomy, psychology and kindred subjects".[9] Frances Reynolds Keyser and Addie Waites Hunton served on the school's advisory board. From 1917 to 1922, she also ran a branch of her school in Chicago. She was the only Black woman to be a fellow of the American Institute of Phrenology. Her work was published in The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health,[10] and The Colored American Magazine.[11]

Minott did anti-lynching work with the Northeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs.[12] In 1911, she hosted a fundraiser for Harriet Tubman's care, and for the work of the YWCA.[13] When she bought "one of the finest houses in the block" in Harlem in 1911, as housing for her students, white property owners tried to pressure her and other Black business owners to leave.[14] She was charged with fortune telling, but the charges were dropped.[15] She sued The New York Times for mischaracterizing her work and her clientele in coverage of the situation.[16]

Minott wrote and sold a book, How to be Beautiful and Keep Youthful (1923).[17] [18] She had a private practice consulting on metaphysics, efficiency, and character analysis. In 1932, the Clio Welfare and Community Center[19] opened a playground in Harlem.[20] Beginning in 1937, she edited and published a magazine, The Community Messenger, with an advisory board of Harlem Renaissance lights including Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Thelma Berlack Boozer.[21]

Personal life

Adena Minott married businessman Harold McDonald Hinds, a widower with two daughters, in 1932.[22] She was widowed when Harold Hinds died in 1945.[23]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Death Index, 1949-1965 [database on-line]. Death index lists an "Adena Hinds", born about 1880, died 13 April 1955.
  2. J. Samuel Watson, "Prof. Adena C. E. Minott, Ph.B., M.S., F.A.I.P." The Colored American Magazine (October 1908): 521-525.
  3. Book: Baumgartner, Kabria. In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America. 2019-12-31. NYU Press. 978-1-4798-2311-6. 101–102. en.
  4. News: 1922-05-20. Real Estate Broker Dead from Pneumonia. 5. The New York Age. 2021-02-19. Newspapers.com.
  5. Web site: Leman. Peter. 2019-10-02. How Profit and Prejudice Built a Family's Human Skull Collection. 2021-02-20. Atlas Obscura. en.
  6. News: Dodson. N. Barnett. 1911-05-13. Clio School of Mutual Science (cont.). 8. The Pittsburgh Courier. 2021-02-19. Newspapers.com.
  7. News: April 9, 1921. Doctor of Metaphysics to Adena C. E. Minott. 4. The Chicago Defender. ProQuest.
  8. News: 1909-06-17. Clio School in Third Year. 3. The New York Age. 2021-02-20. Newspapers.com.
  9. News: Dodson. N. Barnett. 1911-05-13. Clio School of Natural Science. 1. The Pittsburgh Courier. 2021-02-19. Newspapers.com.
  10. Minott. Adena C. E.. January 1905. A Phrenological Detective: A New Year's Story. The Phrenological Journal and Science of Health. 118. 10–11.
  11. Minott. Adena C. E.. November 1907. Phrenology and Child Culture. The Colored American Magazine. 13. 388–390.
  12. Book: Brown, Mary Jane. Eradicating this Evil: Women in the American Anti-Lynching Movement, 1892-1940. 2017-09-25. Routledge. 978-1-136-71253-1. en.
  13. Book: Weisenfeld, Judith. African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905-1945. 1997. Harvard University Press. 978-0-674-00778-9. 87. en.
  14. News: 1911-12-21. News of Greater New York. 15. The New York Age. 2021-02-20.
  15. Book: Pietruska, Jamie L.. Looking Forward: Prediction and Uncertainty in Modern America. 2017-12-08. University of Chicago Press. 978-0-226-50915-0. 228–232. en.
  16. Web site: Minott v. New York Times Co., 146 App. Div. 857. 2021-02-20. Casetext.
  17. Book: Minott, Adena C. E.. How to be Beautiful and Keep Youthful. 1923. Gotham Press. en.
  18. News: December 8, 1923. Dr. Minott's Book. 10. The Chicago Defender. ProQuest.
  19. News: September 21, 1929. Clio Welfare and Community Center. 11. Chicago Defender. ProQuest.
  20. News: May 28, 1932. Open Playground. 11. Chicago Defender. ProQuest.
  21. News: 1937-10-02. New Journal Makes Bow. 10. The New York Age. 2021-02-20. Newspapers.com.
  22. News: 1932-04-02. Dr. Adena C. E. Minott and Harlem Business Man Secretly Wed. 1. The New York Age. 2021-02-20. Newspapers.com.
  23. News: 1945-01-27. Harold Hinds, Harlem Printer, Succumbs from Heart Attack. 4. The New York Age. 2021-02-20. Newspapers.com.

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