Mary Powell Burrill (1881 - 1946)

Born 30 Aug 1881 in Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Died 13 Mar 1946 at age 64 in New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message] and Melanie Paul [send private message]

Mary Burrill is a part of US Black history and has a Platinum Profile. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

Mary Burrill is Notable.

Mary Powell Burrill was an educator and playwright who taught, inspired, and mentored several young Black playwrights of the Harlem Renaissance. Her plays advocated progressive ideas of race and gender. ^[1]

Life Events

Born on August 30, 1881 in Washington, D.C., the youngest child of John Henry Burrill and Clara Eliza Washington, she had not yet been named at the time her birth was registered.^[2] She grew up in Washington D.C.,^[3] attended M Street/Dunbar High School there,^[1] and by 1905, Mary was employed by the government as a school teacher in the District of Columbia.^[4]

Because the District was run as part of the Federal government, African-American teachers in the public schools were part of the civil service and paid on the same scale as European Americans. The system attracted outstanding teachers, especially for Dunbar High School, the academic high school for African Americans.^[5]

Fifteen years later, in 1920, Mary, listed as age 35 and a high school teacher, was single and living at the family home on 17th Street in Washington D.C.; both her parents were deceased. Also in residence was her older brother, Edmond (listed as age 42), a pharmacist.^[6]

Mary had met Lucy Diggs Slowe while teaching at Baltimore High School early in her teaching career, and in 1912, teaching together for a while at Dunbar High, the two became fast friends.^[7] Several years after Lucy moved to D.C., the two women bought a house together, entertaining and otherwise behaving much as any married couple would. The two were a couple for a quarter of a century, remaining together despite difficulties, until Lucy died in 1937.^[5]

When Lucy died, Mary was so grief-stricken she temporarily moved out of the house they had shared for so long. Mary took care of all the arrangements, and responded to all the correspondence that was being sent, not to Lucy's family, but to her, much as would any grieving spouse. She also wrote a long, and very personal, eulogy for Lucy.

I, who have known her as a girl and woman for thirty-five years, as her teacher, her colleague and her friend, am happy and honored to perform this simple task, for it is a duty of mingled joy and pain, tempered by a great admiration and a warm personal affection.

[She] carried with her a great moral authority. And because I have known her so intimately and so long I recognize the source of that authority. … [Her] strength was as the strength of ten, because her heart was pure.^[8]

Mary taught at Dunbar High School for the rest of her career.^[9]

Mary Powell Burrill died on March 13, 1946, and was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Washington D.C., where her parents were also laid to rest.^[10]

The Slowe-Burrill House, the home she bought with Lucy Slowe, received a historic landmark nomination:

Mary Burrill had been one of the first African-American graduates of Emerson University and then taught at Armstrong Manual High School in Washington. For four years, she directed the Washington Conservatory of Music’s School of Expression, where she taught elocution, public speaking and drama. She did most of her teaching career at her alma mater, the M Street School (which became Dunbar High School), until her retirement in 1944. There, she taught English, history, speech and drama, and directed plays and musical productions, influencing generations of young minds, several of whom became educators and writers. On her own time, she was a playwright, publishing two one-act plays, and she regularly attended Georgia Douglass Johnson’s “S Street Salon,” a weekly gathering of black writers.^[11]

It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2020.^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Wikipedia: Mary_P._Burrill
2. ↑ "District of Columbia Birth Returns, 1874-1897", database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F75R-LMB : 8 November 2020), Burrill, 1881. Name: Burrill; Event Type: Birth; Event Date: 30 Aug 1881; Event Place: Washington, District of Columbia, United States; Event Place (Original): Washington, District of Columbia; Sex: Female; Race: Black; Father's Name: John H. Burrill; Father's Birthplace: Virginia; Mother's Name: Clara E. Washington; Mother's Birthplace: Virginia
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MMF9-R7N : accessed 6 February 2021), Mary Burrill in household of John H Burrill, Washington, District of Columbia, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 45, sheet 15B, family 287, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,240,160.

   On June 16, 1900, the Burrill family was living at 1716 17th Street in Washington, D.C. Home at the time were John, a laborer employed by the government, his wife, Clara; and two of their children: Edmond (25), a government messenger, and Mary (19), a student.

4. ↑ Employment: Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census, "Official Register of the United States, Containing a List of the Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service," Vol. 1, (Digitized, Salem, OR: Oregon State Library)

   Name: Miss Mary P. Burrill; Birth Place: District of Columbia; Residence Date: 1 Jul 1905; Station or Residence Place: Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Year: 1905;

   July 1,1905, earning $600.

5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Wikipedia contributors, "Lucy Diggs Slowe," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lucy_Diggs_Slowe&oldid=1088595721 (accessed June 5, 2022).
6. ↑ Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll: T625_210; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 177, date: January 2, 1920, address: 1716 17th Street, Washington D.C.
7. ↑ Samantha Schmitt, citing Carroll L.L. Miller and Anne S. Pruitt-Logan, “Faithful to the Task at Hand: The Life of Lucy Diggs Slowe,” in "This pioneering Howard dean lived with another woman in the 1930s. Were they lovers?" The Washington Post, 26 Mar 2019.
8. ↑ Samantha Schmitt quoting Mary Burrill's eulogy for Lucy Slowe, in "This pioneering Howard dean lived with another woman in the 1930s. Were they lovers?" The Washington Post, 26 Mar 2019.
9. ↑ Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, United States of America, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls. Census Place: Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: m-t0627-00570; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 1-488

   On April 12, 1940, Mary (50), now an English teacher in a government public school, was living at 1266 Kearney Street, Washington, DC. Home with her at the time were her sister Clara's daughter: Clara Josephine Guy née Bruce (age given as 32, when she was actually 36); and Clara's two children: 11-year-old Barrington Guy (named for his actor father); and 6-year-old Bruce (named for his mother's family name).

10. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 05 February 2021), memorial page for Mary Powell Burrill (30 Aug 1881–13 Mar 1946), Find A Grave: Memorial #96715365, citing Woodlawn Cemetery, Benning, District of Columbia, District of Columbia, USA; Maintained by Jeffrey Duarte (contributor 46917915).
11. ↑ Planning DC: Historic Landmark Nomination: Slowe-Burrill House.
12. ↑ "Slowe-Burrill House," National Park Service.

See also:

• Wikipedia : Mary P. Burrill
• Wikidata: Item Q6780473, en:Wikipedia