Tossie Whiting

Tossie Permelia Frances Whiting (1879 – April 23, 1958) was an American educator, and Dean of Women at Virginia State University from 1919 to 1936.

A page from The United Negro (1902); Tossie Whiting is featured center right, numbered 3

Early life

Tossie Whiting was born in the Fulton Hill neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Robert W. Whiting and Nancy Whiting.[1] She graduated from Hartshorn Memorial College (then a high school) in 1895, then earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago and a master's degree at Columbia University.[2]

Career

In 1901, Whiting was named a commissioner of the Negro Young People's Christian and Educational Congress.[3]

Whiting worked at Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute from 1904[4] until 1948, when she retired. In 1919 the position of Dean of Women was created for her, and she was dean until 1936. In 1929 she was one of the founding members of the Association of Deans of Women and Advisors to Girls in Negro Schools, an offshoot of the National Association of College Women.[5] She was an associate professor of English at Virginia State from 1936 until 1948. In 1958, a dormitory at the school was named Whiting Hall in her honor.[6]

In 1945, she received an honorary doctorate from Virginia Union University, at a commencement ceremony where W. E. B. DuBois was the speaker.[7] She was chair of the Hartshorn Memorial College Alumni Association from 1935 to 1947.[8]

Personal life

Whiting died in 1958, aged 79 years. A small collection of her papers are archived at Virginia Union University.[2] Her brother Gregory W. Whiting also found a career in college administration, at Bluefield State College in West Virginia.[9] Their sister Beatrice was a high school teacher.[10]

gollark: C bad in cases where you are writing higher-level applications.
gollark: I see.
gollark: I know where you are educated, thanks to the orbital spy bees covering all Britain.
gollark: No, I mean anima.
gollark: is this at a university or something or "school"?

References
  1. "Passed Away" Richmond Planet (September 28, 1895): 6. via Newspapers.com
  2. Tossie P. F. Whiting Papers, Archives and Special Collections Department, L. Douglas Wilder Library, Virginia Union University.
  3. Irvine Garland Penn and John Wesley Edward Bowen, eds., The United Negro: His Problems and His Progress (D. E. Luther Publishing Company 1902): 510.
  4. Untitled brief news item, Richmond Planet (February 4, 1905): 1. via Newspapers.com
  5. Hilda Andrea Davis and Patricia Bell-Scott, "Association of Deans of Women and Advisors to Girls in Negro Schools" in Faustine Childress Jones-Wilson, ed., Encyclopedia of African-American Education (Greenwood Publishing Company 1996): 35-36. ISBN 9780313289316
  6. Virginia State University, Whiting Hall.
  7. "Dr. DuBois to Speak" Pittsburgh Courier (June 9, 1945): 14. via Newspapers.com
  8. Hartshorn Memorial College collection, Virginia Union University.
  9. Scott C. Davis, The World of Patience Gromes: The Making and Unmaking of a Black Community (Cune Press 1999): 55. ISBN 9781885942517
  10. Papers of Beatrice Jeanette Whiting, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.
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