Otelia Shields Howard
A young light-skinned Black woman, wearing an academic mortar-board cap and gown
Otelia Shields, from a 1921 graduation photograph in The Crisis
Born
Otelia Roberta Shields

September 15, 1900
Petersburg, Virginia
DiedDecember 13, 1945
Petersburg, Virginia
Alma materFisk University (BA)
Columbia University (MA)
OccupationEnglish professor
RelativesAudrey S. Penn (niece)

Otelia Roberta Shields Howard (September 15, 1900[1] – December 13, 1945) was an American professor of English. She taught more than twenty years at Virginia State College, and founded the school's newspaper, the Virginia Statesman.

Early life and education

Otelia Roberta Shields was born in Petersburg, Virginia, the daughter of James E. Shields and Otelia Jones Shields. Her father, a school principal, was a member of the first graduating class at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute in 1886. She trained as a teacher at the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, then attended Fisk University, where she was a member of the Fisk Pageant Singers and earned a bachelor's degree in English with high honors in 1921.[2] She earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1926.[3]

Her brother, James E. Shields Jr., was a physician trained at Howard University. Neurologist Audrey S. Penn is her niece.[4]

Career

Shields was a charter member of the Virginia State graduate chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha,[5] and president of the local YWCA.[6] During World War I, as part of her work with the YWCA, she organized the Committee on Girls' Welfare and Women's Work of the Camp Lee War Council in Petersburg.[7]

Howard taught more than twenty years at her alma mater, which was renamed Virginia State College, beginning as an instructor in 1921, and becoming an associate professor several years later. She founded the school's honor society and its newspaper, the Virginia Statesman in 1929. In 1930 she began offering the Shields-Howard Award, an annual student award for creative writing. She also edited the Virginia State College Gazette and Catalogue,[3] and directed student plays, including a production of A Doll's House in 1928.[8]

Personal life

Otelia Shields married biology professor Roscoe Conklin Howard in 1936. Otelia Shields Howard died in 1945, in Petersburg, from complications related to multiple sclerosis.[9] A special "In Memoriam" edition of the Virginia Statesman was published in her memory, in March 1846. Her prize was continued, just renamed the Shields Howard Memorial Award for Creative Literature.[3] Howard Hall, a women's dormitory named for her at Virginia State University, was built in the 1960s and demolished in 2010.[10][11]

References

  1. ↑ Her birth date was recorded as September 15, 1900 on her death certificate, and she gave her age as 34 on her marriage license in September 1936. But she was listed as an 8-month-old child on the 1900 United States census, making an 1899 birth date more plausible.
  2. ↑ "The Higher Training of Negroes". The Crisis. 22: 111. July 1921.
  3. 1 2 3 "In Memoriam: Otelia Shields Howard". The Virginia Statesman. HBCU Library Alliance. March 30, 1946. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  4. ↑ "Dr. Shields Dies at Home". The Progress-Index. 1963-11-22. p. 30. Retrieved 2021-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ "Notable Delta Omega Women". Delta Omega. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  6. ↑ Bennett, Jessi (2021-03-24). ""She was, before her marriage, an accomplished teacher."". The UncommonWealth. Retrieved 2021-05-07.
  7. ↑ Young Women's Christian Association of the U. S. A. National Board War Work Council Colored Work Committee (1919). The Work of Colored Women. Colored Work Committee War Work Council, National Board Young Womens Christian Assoc. p. 46.
  8. ↑ "Present Ibsen's 'Doll's House'". The Pittsburgh Courier. 1928-04-21. p. 15. Retrieved 2021-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Cause of death from her death certificate, Virginia Department of Health; Richmond, Virginia; Virginia Deaths, 1912-2014, via Ancestry.
  10. ↑ Everett, Leenora (September 1, 1966). "Virginia State Expects 2,200 This Fall". Petersburg Progress-Index. p. 9. Retrieved May 7, 2021 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  11. ↑ Jones, Maurice B. (Fall 2018). "The Buildings are Gone, but the Legacy Exists Forever". Virginia State University Alumni Magazine: 20.
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