Lena Trent Gordon
Newspaper photo of an African-American woman in an oval frame.
Lena Trent Gordon, from a 1923 newspaper.
Born
Lena Bessie Trent

1885
Cumberland County, Virginia
DiedJune 14, 1935
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
NationalityAmerican

Lena Trent Gordon (1885 – June 14, 1935) was an American social worker, orator, government official, and poet, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Early life

Lena Bessie Trent was born in Cumberland County, Virginia, the daughter of Peter Field Trent and Lucy Trent.[1] Her older sister Julia married Rev. William Henry Moses;[2] through them, her niece was actress Ethel Moses, and her great-nephew is educator and civil rights activist Bob Moses.[3][4]

Career

Gordon was active in Philadelphia community organizing.[5][6][7] She had a mayoral appointment as chief investigator[8] in the Legal Aid Bureau of the Department of Public Welfare.[9][10] Mayor W. Freeland Kendrick, congressman William Scott Vare, and other officials gave testimonials a banquet in her honor in 1924.[11] She worked in the presidential campaigns of Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, and for other Republican candidates for political office.[12][13][14][15] She served in the Hoover administration, on the National Committee on Negro Housing, headed by Nannie Helen Burroughs.[1][16] She was president of the William Penn Club.[17]

Gordon was a popular speaker at community events.[18][19] She gave a lecture in Pittsburgh in 1925[20] on "Religion and World Culture": "The inventors, astronomers, poets and scientists teach us every day that man's real happiness is only to be found along the road of progress," she declared, adding "Every hour is crowded full of fascinating problems, all awaiting investigation."[21] In 1928, she was on the program of speakers for the All-Philadelphia Inter-racial Peace Meeting, along with pacifists Wilbur K. Thomas and Camille Drevet, labor leader J. Finley Wilson, Mayor Harry A. Mackey, Alice Dunbar Nelson, and W. E. B. Du Bois.[22]

Gordon also wrote poetry for the Pittsburgh Courier newspaper.[23][24]

Personal life

Lena B. Trent married Samuel G. Gordon in 1910. They had a daughter, Aurelia.[25] Lena Trent Gordon died in 1935, aged about fifty years.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Philadelphia's 'Most Dynamic' Woman is Dead". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1935-06-22. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "A Brilliant Wedding". Richmond Planet. 1899-07-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-02-26 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ Snelson, Floyd G. (1938-02-12). "A Life Well Spent". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 19. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Visser-Maessen, Laura (2016-02-24). Robert Parris Moses: A Life in Civil Rights and Leadership at the Grassroots. UNC Press Books. pp. 11–15. ISBN 978-1-4696-2799-1.
  5. ↑ "Business and Professional Men Head Big List for Zoar Community Campaign Drive". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1923-10-20. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "Our Lena". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1924-12-13. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Start Campaign for Hospital for Negroes". Philadelphia Inquirer. June 2, 1918. p. 27. Retrieved February 25, 2020 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  8. ↑ "Mackey Lauds City's Women Welfare Aides". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 1929-07-14. p. 23. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Directory of Committee Personnel, December 2-5, 1931. President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership. 1931. p. 48.
  10. ↑ "Injured in Auto Wreck". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1926-07-31. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "Dinner to Mrs. Gordon Marked by Attendance of Mayor and Other Officials". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1924-04-26. p. 12. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Penn, Franklin (1929-08-31). "Lena Trent Gordon Quits Post to Fight for G. O. P. Candidates". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 10. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Leaders in Political Life of Quaker City". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1923-12-01. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "Colored Women Lined Up for Scott and Dickerson". Philadelphia Tribune. September 17, 1921. p. 1. Retrieved February 25, 2020 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  15. ↑ Mack, Kenneth W. (2012). Representing the Race. Harvard University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-674-06530-7.
  16. ↑ "Capital Woman Heads Home Body". Evening Star. 1931-04-15. p. 52. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ "Philly Women Give Student Scholarship". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1930-04-26. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ "Industrial School to Graduate Six". The Evening Journal. 1927-06-07. p. 19. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ↑ "Lena Trent Gordon to Speak at Loendi". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1925-02-07. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  20. ↑ "Lena Trent Gordon to Speak Here". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1925-08-15. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Lena Trent Gordon Makes Masterly Address at Ebenezer". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1925-08-29. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ↑ "1500 Attend Interracial Meeting in Phila". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1928-05-19. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  23. ↑ Gordon, Lena Trent (1927-12-24). "From a Philadelphian's Note Book". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ↑ Gordon, Lena Trent (1925-02-28). "The Rainbow's Sign". The Pittsburgh Courier. p. 4. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
  25. ↑ "Nutters Lavishly Entertain". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1925-07-11. p. 11. Retrieved 2020-02-25 – via Newspapers.com.
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