Elizabeth Ross Haynes

Elizabeth Ross Haynes (July 31, 1883 – October 26, 1953) was born in Mount Willing, Alabama parents who were formerly enslaved. She was valedictorian of her class at the State Normal School of Montgomery.

Ross went on to obtain a A.B. from Fisk University in 1903. Haynes pursued her master’s degree at Columbia University where her thesis was “Two Million Negro Women at Work,” a landmark study on black women and employment. She received her MA in 1923.

She was elected to the national board of the YWCA in 1924. Read more at BlackPast.org