Hallie Paxson Winsborough
An older white woman, with coiffed white hair, wearing glasses, a strand of beads, and a light-colored dress with an embroidered round neckline
Hallie Paxson Winsborough, from a 1923 publication
Born(1865-03-07)March 7, 1865
Mason City, Illinois, United States
DiedJune 20, 1940(1940-06-20) (aged 75)
Davenport, Iowa, United States
EducationSynodical College
Occupation(s)Church leader, clubwoman, activist

Hallie Paxson Winsborough (March 7, 1865 – June 20, 1940) was an American church worker. As the first Secretary of Women's Work for the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), she worked for civil rights and interracial cooperation, especially in the American South. She was also a founding member of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (AWSPL).

Early life

Hallie Paxson was born in Mason City, Illinois, and raised in St. Louis, the daughter of William P. Paxson and Harriet Missouri Swing Paxson.[1] Her father was an ordained Presbyterian minister from a family active in church work.[2] She attended Synodical College, a church-run women's college in Fulton, Missouri.[3]

Career

Winsborough, "an organizational whirlwind",[3] taught school as a young woman. In 1908, she investigated living conditions among the Italian immigrants in Kansas City, and wrote a report that led to the founding of the Italian Mission and the Slavic Mission, Presbyterian outreach programs.[3][4][5]

From 1912 to 1929,[6] Winsborough was the first Secretary (or Superintendent) of Women's Work for the PCUS, the Southern body of Presbyterians after the American denomination's split over slavery in 1861.[3][7] She started a series of "Colored Women's Conferences" to bring more Black women into active roles in the church.[8] In 1922, she visited a mission school for girls in Japan, and started a denomination-wide "birthday offering" fundraiser to support mission projects.[9] In 1923, she gave a nationally publicized speech to the Executive Council of the Federal Council of Churches meeting in Ohio, in which she denounced the Ku Klux Klan and exhorted American Christians to work against racism and for interracial cooperation. In 1927 she was the first woman allowed to address the denomination's General Assembly.[10] She resigned from the national secretary position in 1929, for health reasons, but remained involved in the programs she helped to launch for ten further years.[3]

Beyond church settings, Winsborough was active in the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), and was a founding member of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL).[3] In 1925, she was an American delegate to the ecumenical World Conference of Life and Work, in Stockholm.[4]

Publications

  • "The Woman's Building at Montreat" (1917)[11]
  • "Summer Conferences for Colored Women" (1922)[11]
  • "A Visit to Carlotta Kemper Seminary" (1925)[11]
  • The Woman's Auxiliary, Presbyterian Church U.S. (1927)[11]
  • Yesteryears (1937)[12]
  • Glorious Living (1937)[12]

Personal life and legacy

Hallie Paxson married lawyer William Calvert Winsborough in 1888.[13] They had six children together.[10] Her daughter Zue died in childhood in 1895; her youngest child, Hal, died in 1938.[14] She died in 1940, at the age of 75, in Davenport, Iowa.[3][4][15][16]

Winsborough Hall, the first women's dormitory at Stillman College, was named in her memory,[17] as was a building at Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina.[18][19] Her grandson Halliman H. Winsborough was a professor at the University of Wisconsin.[20] Her granddaughter and namesake, Hallie Paxson Davis Christian, was an engineer, and an ordained Methodist minister.[21]

References

  1. ↑ "Hallie Paxson Winsborough: A Sketch of her Life and an Appreciation". The Presbyterian Survey. 30 (11): 486–489. November 1940 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ↑ Irvine, Mary D.; Eastwood, Alice L. (1923). Pioneer Women of the Presbyterian Church, United States. Presbyterian Committee of Publication. pp. 68–72.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Durway, Julie (2000). ""The field is endless": Hallie Paxson Winsborough and Interracial Work in the PCUS Woman's Auxiliary, 1912—1940". The Journal of Presbyterian History (1997-). 78 (3): 207–219, quote on page 210. ISSN 1521-9216. JSTOR 23335479.
  4. 1 2 3 "Funeral Tuesday". The Daily Times. July 22, 1940. p. 9. Retrieved October 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Mauze, J. Layton Jr. (December 1940). "'Stepping Stones to Higher Things'". The Presbyterian Survey. 30 (12): 554 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ↑ "Hallie Paxson Winsborough". Concern. 29 (4): 38. April 1987 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ Mulder, John M.; Coalter, Milton J.; Weeks, Louis B. (January 1, 1992). The Organizational Revolution: Presbyterians and American Denominationalism. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 221. ISBN 978-0-664-25197-0.
  8. ↑ Hill, Kimberly D. (October 15, 2020). A Higher Mission: The Careers of Alonzo and Althea Brown Edmiston in Central Africa. University Press of Kentucky. p. 156. ISBN 978-0-8131-7983-4.
  9. ↑ "PW Birthday Offering". First Presbyterian Church Hammond. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  10. 1 2 Coalter, Milton J.; Mulder, John M.; Weeks, Louis (January 1, 1992). The Pluralistic Vision: Presbyterians and Mainstream Protestant Education and Leadership. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-664-25243-4.
  11. 1 2 3 4 "Hallie Paxson Winsborough (1865-1940)". Log College Press Annex. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  12. 1 2 Library of Congress Copyright Office (1937). Catalog of Copyright Entries. Part 1. [A] Group 1. Books. New Series. p. 1471.
  13. ↑ Conard, Howard Louis (1901). Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri: A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference. Southern history Company, Haldeman, Conard & Company, proprietors. pp. 490–492.
  14. ↑ "Funeral is Held Here Friday for Hal Winsborough". The Marshall News Messenger. September 9, 1938. p. 8. Retrieved October 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Death notices". The Southern Frontier. August 1940. p. 4. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
  16. ↑ "Hallie Paxson Winsborough: In Loving Tribute". The Presbyterian Survey. 30 (12): 558–565. December 1940 – via Internet Archive.
  17. ↑ Robinson, Monique (December 2, 2021). "Preserving Winsborough Hall at Stillman College: A Q&A with Dr. Cynthia Warrick". National Trust for Historic Preservation. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  18. ↑ Standaert, Mary McPhail; Standaert, Joseph (2009). Montreat. Arcadia Publishing. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-7385-6814-0.
  19. ↑ "Mrs. A. H. Davos Attends Ceremony Unveiling Her Mother's Portrait". The Sandusky Register. July 9, 1952. p. 8. Retrieved October 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Hal Winsborough". Center for Demography and Ecology. September 18, 2018. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  21. ↑ Ahlgrim (May 14, 2013). "Reverend Dr. Hallie Paxson Davis Christian 1/4/22 - 4/13/13". Ahlgrim Family Funeral Services. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
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