Background
The second of four daughters, Beverly was born in December 1874 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, daughter of John W. Beverly, an African American butcher/ businessman, and Johanna Mina "Minnie" Ruesink, a Dutch immigrant.
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Hattie Beverly
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In 1895 Beverly graduated from Grand Rapids Central High School majoring in Preparatory English.
Career
When Beverly was one year old the family moved from to Grand Rapids, Michigan. At this time Grand Rapids had a cadet program to train unmarried women to teach in its schools. Beverly entered this program after high school, graduating in 1899.
After her proponents prevailed, she was hired at Congress Elementary School in June 1899.
Since married women were not permitted to teach, she resigned her position at Congress School. In 1904 she traveled to a sanitarium in Las Vegas, New Mexico where she succumbed to the disease at 30 years of age.
Every year the Grand Rapids Community College awards a Hattie Beverly Education Award to an outstanding African American educator in the Grand Rapids area. In the fall of 2000 the Hattie Beverly Tutoring Center was created.
lieutenant serves Grand Rapids"s Southeast Side (specifically the Madison Neighborhood).
Membership
When it became time to hire her for a teaching position some members of the school board wondered whether an African American should be permitted to teach, and it appeared that she may be denied.
