English: Biography: As social worker, mother, and civic leader, Alfreda Barnett Duster worked tirelessly to improve conditions in her neighborhood and community and to provide an environment capable of enriching and nourishing the lives of all people, especially the young. She grew up in Chicago surrounded by her large family and colleagues of her parents, Ferdinand L. Barnett and Ida B. Wells- Barnett. Graduating from the University of Chicago in 1924, she spent the next 20 years as wife, mother, and homemaker. Widowed at the age of 40 and with five children to raise, she returned to school to study for a degree in social work. As a social worker for the state of Illinois in the newly developing field of community organization, she served as juvenile delinquency prevention coordinator. She was also the administrator of the girls' program for underprivileged city children at Camp Illini, "Mother of the Year" in 1950 and 1970, and editor of her mother's autobiography, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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