People, Locations, Episodes

Tue, 05.05.1863

Adella Hunt Logan, Educator born

Adella Hunt’s birth in 1863 is celebrated on this date. She was a Black educator and administrator.

She was born in Sparta, Georgia, the daughter of a Black woman and a white farmer, Henry Hunt. Her father served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He did not live with his eight children, but he did help to pay for Adella's education at Sparta's Bass Academy and Atlanta University. In 1883, young Hunt taught at the American Missionary School before joining Booker T. Washington and Olivia Davidson at the Tuskegee Institute.

Adella Hunt taught English and social sciences and served as Tuskegee's first librarian. She married Warren Logan, a fellow teacher, and administrator at the Tuskegee Institute, in 1888. Over the next few years, she gave birth to nine children, but only six survived to adulthood. A strong supporter of women's suffrage, Hunt led monthly discussions at the Tuskegee Woman's Club. She also built a large library of reading materials about issues and lectured at regional and national conferences of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. Hunt wrote about women's rights in Crisis, a journal produced by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Hunt became ill in 1915 with depression and was admitted to Battle Creek Sanitarium for treatment. She returned to the Tuskegee Institute after hearing that Booker T. Washington was seriously ill.

Hunt's depression increased after the death of Washington. Tragically and inexplicably, on December 12, 1915, Adella Hunt Logan committed suicide following the death of Booker T. Washington.  She jumped to her death from the top floor of one of the school's buildings.

To Become a School Principal