| Anita Florence Hemmings | |
| Birth Date: | 8 June 1872 |
| Birth Place: | Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Death Place: | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Vassar College |
| Occupation: | Librarian |
| Children: | 3 |
Anita Florence Hemmings (June 8, 1872 – 1960) was known as the first African American woman to graduate from Vassar College. As she was of both African and European ancestry, she passed as white for socioeconomic benefits. After graduation, Hemmings became a librarian at the Boston Public Library.
Anita Hemmings was born June 8, 1872, in Boston. Her parents were Dora Logan (maiden; 1856–1941) and Robert Williamson Hemmings, Sr. (1843–1908). Anita was raised as an Episcopalian.
Anita married Andrew Jackson Love (1861–1948), on October 20, 1903, at Trinity Church in Boston. Their marriage license indicates their race as African American.
In 1890, Love earned a medical degree from the Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College in Nashville, a historically black college distinguished for having the first medical school in the South for African Americans. In the summer of 1905, he did post-graduate studies at Harvard Medical School.
Like some other black Americans of mixed ancestry, both Hemmings and her husband passed as white as adults for socioeconomic benefit. They did not inform their children of their biracial ancestry.[1] [2]
Hemmings attended preparation school at Girls' High School in Boston and Northfield, where she had been roommates with Elizabeth Baker (maiden; 1868–1943), who, on September 23, 1896, married William Henry Lewis (1868–1949).
Fulfilling a childhood dream, Hemmings attended Vassar, and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1897. Based on her appearance and visible European ancestry, she was apparently assumed to be white. About the time she graduated, a Boston newspaper reported that Fred J. Hemmings, an African American, had graduated from MIT, and he had a sister at Vassar. Her story came out.
Later, rumors circulated that she should have been valedictorian, but they were false. Some said that Hemmings was the most attractive woman in her class. Classmates believed that she may have had 'Indian blood', as she was darker skinned than some girls and had straight black hair. She sang soprano in the glee club and was the featured soloist at the local churches in Poughkeepsie.[3]
In 1997, Vassar African-American studies students petitioned college president Frances D. Fergusson to recognize Hemmings at that year's centennial celebration. Writing about it in Vassar Quarterly, Olivia Mancini, a local journalist, said this recognition "brought [Hemmings’] graduation and presence to a level of honor that it should have had a hundred years ago." Vassar has acknowledged Anita Hemmings as the first African American to graduate the college, and noted that for almost all of her college career, she was thought to be white.
In November 2017, it was announced that Zendaya will produce and star in a biopic of Hemmings' life titled A White Lie, based on the 2016 novel The Gilded Years by Karin Tanabe. This explores Hemmings' life in a fictional way. Reese Witherspoon will also produce the project and Monica Beletsky will write the script. TriStar Pictures will distribute the film.
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