Etnah Rochon Boutte

Etnah Rochon Boutte (1880 — March 9, 1973) was an American educator, pharmacist, and clubwoman. She taught French at Fisk University and in New York City. She was executive secretary of the Circle for Negro War Relief during World War I.

Etnah Rochon Boutte
Etnah Rochon Boutte, from a 1923 publication.
Born
Etnah R. Rochon

1880 (1880)
Died1973 (aged 92–93)
NationalityAmerican
Other namesEdna Rochon Boutte
Occupationeducator, pharmacist, medical social worker
Years active1917-1965
Known forCircle for Negro War Relief, National Council of Negro Women, cancer advocacy

Early life

Etnah R. Rochon was from St. Martin Parish, Louisiana,[1] the daughter of Victor Narcisse Rochon and Kate Rochon. Her mother was a teacher, and her father was a member of the Louisiana legislature during Reconstruction. She had three older sisters, including Althea Rochon, who went overseas as a YMCA worker during World War I.[2][3] Another older sister, Beatrice Frances Rochon, married architect Robert Robinson Taylor;[4] Former government official Valerie Jarrett is the great-granddaughter of Beatrice Rochon Taylor.[5]

(Etnah Rochon Boutte's first name is found as Etna or Edna in some sources, but she used the five-letter spelling in published advertisements for her school[6] and in correspondence.)

Education

Boutte attended Fisk University, but left during her senior year in 1917 to do war work. In 1927 she petitioned for her degree, with a letter of support from W. E. B. Du Bois.[7] After the war, in 1923, she earned a pharmacy degree, and a bachelor's degree in education and professional diploma in French (including a semester of study in Paris),[8] all from Columbia University.[9][10][11][12] At the 1928 commencement exercises at Fisk, John D. Rockefeller Jr. presented Boutte with her belated degree, saying, "Here is a young woman who has a bachelor of science degree from Columbia and a master of arts degree from Columbia and the University of Paris, but she comes back to Fisk for her bachelor of arts degree, prizing it above all the others."[13]

Career

Education work

Boutte was a school teacher in Opelousas, Louisiana,[14] and was a teacher educator in summer training programs.[1][15] She taught French at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.[16][17] She taught French at New York's 137th Street YWCA in 1925,[18] and opened her own school of French in Harlem in 1930.[19] She was an officer of the New York Fisk Club,[20] and a member of the Penelope Club in Brooklyn.[21]

Wartime work

During World War I, while her husband was overseas as a member of John J. Pershing's staff,[22] Boutte was executive secretary of the Circle for Negro War Relief, a national fundraising effort organized in New York City.[23][24] During World War II she chaired the Manhattan chapter of the Free French Relief Committee.[25]

Community and health advocacy

In 1922, Boutte was one of the sixteen women who founded the NAACP fundraising effort the Anti-Lynching Crusaders, in Newark, New Jersey, with Mary Burnett Talbert as director.[26] In 1927 she was on the committee of the Emma Ransom House at the 137th Street YWCA.[27] She was president of the New York Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women in 1944 and 1945.[28][29]

After World War II, she worked with the American Cancer Society as a medical social work consultant, and ran "The Little Red Door", a cancer information center in Harlem.[30][31][32] In 1952, she was a member of the New York City Cancer Committee Board.[33] From 1943 into the 1960s, she was appointed to several terms on the Board of Visitors at the Warwick State Training School for Boys.[34]

Boutte's Pharmacy

Boutte ran a pharmacy with her husband in New York for decades. In 1958 she survived an armed robbery while she was alone in the store.[35]

Personal life

In 1914, Boutte married pharmacist Mathieu (or Matthew) Virgil Boutte (or Boutté). In 1928, Boutte was in a serious traffic accident.[36]

In 1957, Boutte's husband M. V. Boutte died.[37]

On March 9, 1973, Boutte died. She was 92 years old. Boutte is buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery.[38]

References
  1. "New Iberia" The Times Democrat (June 25, 1906): 7. via Newspapers.com
  2. "Mrs. Kate Rochon Dead" The New York Age (April 12, 1924): 2. via Newspapers.com
  3. "The Horizon" The Crisis (June 1919): 100.
  4. Ellen Weiss, "Robert Robinson Taylor" Encyclopedia of Alabama.
  5. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Finding Your Roots, Season 2: The Official Companion to the PBS Series (University of North Carolina Press 2016): 251-252. ISBN 9781469626192
  6. Advertisement, The New York Age (May 16, 1931): 2. via Newspapers.com
  7. "Petition to the Presidents and Trustees of Fisk University, ca. July 8, 1927" W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  8. "Mrs. Boutte in Paris" The New York Age (August 18, 1923): 8. via Newspapers.com
  9. "Mrs. Boutte Wins Diploma in French and B. S. Degree" The New York Age (June 14, 1924): 9. via Newspapers.com.
  10. Celeste Day Moore, "'Every Wide Awake Negro Teacher of French Should Know': The Pedagogies of Black Internationalism in the Early Twentieth Century" in Keisha N. Blain, Christopher Cameron, Ashley D. Farmer, eds., New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition (Northwestern University Press 2018): note 12. ISBN 9780810138148
  11. "The Year in Higher Training" The Crisis (July 1924): 108.
  12. "Making European Trip" The New York Age (July 7, 1923): 8. via Newspapers.com
  13. "John D. Rockefeller Jr. Delivers His First Commencement Address at 1928 Commencement, Fisk University" The New York Age (June 16, 1928): 2. via Newspapers.com
  14. "Proceedings of the Board of School Directors" (October 1, 1904): 6. via Newspapers.com
  15. Untitled news item, The Donaldsonville Chief (May 21, 1910): 1. via Newspapers.com
  16. Catalog of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University (1915): 6.
  17. "Fisk University" Annual Report of the American Missionary Association (1916): 40.
  18. "Industrial Classes at 137th St. Y Offer Opportunities" The New York Age (October 31, 1925): 7. via Newspapers.com
  19. "Etnah Rochon Boutte School for French to be Opened in Harlem" The New York Age (August 30, 1930): 3. via Newspapers.com
  20. "New York Fisk Club Reorganizes, Elects Dr. Reddick as Prexy" The New York Age (January 18, 1941): 6. via Newspapers.com
  21. "Penelope Club Royally Feted" The New York Age (December 18, 1948): 12. via Newspapers.com
  22. "Col. Chas Young Post Dedicates Colors Given by Mrs. Etnah Boutte" The New York Age (June 30, 1923): 2. via Newspapers.com
  23. Philip McGuire, "Circle for Negro War Relief" in Nina Mjagkij, ed., Organizing Black America (Routledge 2013): 129-130. ISBN 9781135581237
  24. Jefferson Williams, ed., The Voluntary Aid of America (Williams 1918): 214. via Internet Archive
  25. "Free French Relief Committee to Hold Public Meeting" The New York Age (May 30, 1942): 5. via Newspapers.com
  26. "Work of Women" NAACP Annual Report for 1922 (1923): 55-56.
  27. "First Year's Operation of Emma Ransom House, Y. W. C. A. Hotel, Connected with 137th Street Branch, Shows Fine Results" The New York Age (February 12, 1927): 1. via Newspapers.com
  28. "Metropolitan Chapter of Natl. Council of Negro Women Sponsors Portia White Concert" The New York Age (September 23, 1944): 4. via Newspapers.com
  29. "Congresswoman Helen G. Douglas Speaks at Mid-Lenten Tea Honoring Noted Women" The New York Age (March 24, 1945): 4. via Newspapers.com
  30. "Medical Social Worker Alarmed" New York Age (November 27, 1948): 11. via Newspapers.com
  31. "Talk on Cancer" The New York Age (March 23, 1946): 5. via Newspapers.com
  32. "Cancer Surgical Dressing Unit" New York Age (February 24, 1945): 4. via Newspapers.com
  33. "Harlem's Cancer Group Program is Integrated" The New York Age (August 30, 1952): 6. via Newspapers.com
  34. "Rocky Again Picks Mrs. Boutte" The Times Record (May 23, 1961): 16. via Newspapers.com
  35. "Rob Drugstore" Daily News (April 6, 1958): 268. via Newspapers.com
  36. "Alderman Fred R. Moore in Automobile Accident" The New York Age (December 15, 1928): 1. via Newspapers.com
  37. "Mathieu V. Boutte Buried at Arlington" The New York Age (October 19, 1957): 3. via Newspapers.com
  38. "Death Notices" Daily News (March 11, 1973): 57. via Newspapers.com
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