Marion Vera Cuthbert (1896 – 1989) was an American writer and intellectual associated with the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

Early life

Cuthbert was born in

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

. She received her bachelor's degree from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

in 1920. She subsequently became principal of Burrel Normal School, then Dean of Women at Talladega College. In 1933, she delivered an address at the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

national convention entitled "Honesty in Race Relations." Cuthbert later received her master's degree and Doctorate from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Her dissertation, titled "Education and Marginality: A Study of the Negro College Graduate," was a sociological study of the effects of education on the lives of African-American women. She published a volume of poetry, as well as essays in '' Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life''.

Career

Cuthbert served as dean of women at Talladega College from 1927 to 1930, and from 1928 to 1931, she completed a master's in psychology at

during the summers. She got her PhD from Columbia

Teacher's College Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties ...

in 1942. Cuthbert turned down

Charles S. Johnson Charles Spurgeon Johnson (July 24, 1893 – October 27, 1956) was an American sociologist and college administrator, the first black president of historically black Fisk University, and a lifelong advocate for racial equality and the advancem ...

's offer to teach at

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

in favor of a position at

Brooklyn College Brooklyn College is a public university in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. It is part of the City University of New York system and enrolls about 15,000 undergraduate and 2,800 graduate students on a 35-acre campus. Being New York City's first publ ...

, where she worked from 1944 to 1961 and where was the first black woman to serve as dean of women. In an oral history, Olivia Pearl Stokes mentions Dr. Cuthbert was considered for presidency of Spelman College. After Cuthbert retired to

Plainfield, NH Plainfield is a town in Sullivan County, New Hampshire, United States. At the time of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 2,459. The town is home to the Helen Woodruff Smith Bird Sanctuary and Annie Duncan State Forest. The village of P ...

, she authored numerous volumes of poetry, children's books, and short stories, some of which are anthologized.

Research

Dr. Cuthbert's research on black female college graduates, represented in her work ''Education and Marginality: A Study of the Negro College Graduate,'' fills a vacuum in literature about the experiences of black college graduates during the 1930s and 1940s. Her work complements that of Charles S. Johnson's study ''The Negro College Graduate'' published in 1938. Her dissertation focused on the experiences of black females at the intersection of race, gender and culture in context of college attainment. She conducted a comparative survey study of the experiences of black females who attained a college degree against those who never attended. Martin D. Jenkins critiques her work by claiming that while the focus on black females in college is critical, her methodology is not strong enough to make the work generalizable to the black experience.

Selected works

*Cuthbert, Marion Vera (1934).
Juliette Derricotte
'. New York, N.Y., The Woman's Press. *Cuthbert, Marion Vera (1949).
Songs of Creation
'' New York, Woman's Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuthbert, Marion Vera American women poets American women essayists 1896 births 1989 deaths Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American essayists Teachers College, Columbia University alumni People from Plainfield, New Hampshire Brooklyn College faculty Boston University alumni