Carrie Estelle Snowden ( – 1948)District of Columbia, U.S., Compiled Marriage Index, 1830-1921. Vol 103 P326 31826. via Ancestry.com was one of the founders of

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is an List of African American fraternities, historically African-American Fraternities and sororities, sorority. The sorority was founded in 1908 at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. Alpha Kappa Alpha ...

sorority, the first sorority founded by African-American women.

Early life

Snowden was born in Pennsylvania c. 1884. She grew up in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, where she attended public schools. In June 1902, she graduated eighth grade at the Lincoln School and was promoted to high school. In June 1906, she graduated from

M Street High School M Street High School, also known as Dunbar High School, is a historic former school building located in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington, D.C. It has been listed on the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites since 1978 and it was li ...

where she served as her class vice president. She enrolled in

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

in the School of Arts and Science in 1906. There were only a few women enrolled in Howard at the time. She graduated from Howard with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in May 1910, having studied English, French, German, and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

Alpha Kappa Alpha

While at Howard, she and fifteen other women formed Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. Snowden was admitted to the sorority without initiation in February 1908. She served as the epistoleus (corresponding secretary) of what became the ''Alpha chapter'' of the sorority in the fall of 1909. In 1923, Snowden was a charter member of ''Xi Omega alumnae chapter'' of Alpha Kappa Alpha in Washington, D.C. She was active in its membership and amenities committees.

Career

In 1917, Snowden was appointed a substitute librarian for high schools and normal schools in Washington, D.C. Later in life, Snowden worked in administration at Howard University as a

switchboard operator In the early days of telephony, companies used manual telephone switchboards, and switchboard operators connected calls by inserting a pair of phone plugs into the appropriate jacks. They were gradually phased out and replaced by automated syste ...

until she retired.

Personal life

Snowden and Silas Hinton married on January 4, 1906, in Washington, D.C. Snowden's job at the university allowed her to take classes there. She pursued lifelong learning, taking courses in a wide range of subjects such as commerce, economics, mathematics, and social work. In 1943, she took a course in typing at Howard. Snowden died in 1948 in Washington, D.C. She was buried in Washington, D.C. Her sorority friends remembered her as "small, slim, and gracious".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snowden, Carrie 1948 deaths Alpha Kappa Alpha founders People from Washington, D.C. 20th-century African-American women 1884 births