Harriet J. Terry was added to Cornwall’s Wall of Fame last fall. At the induction ceremony on Oct. 10, Susan Kamlet and Sonia Grant addressed the audience in the high school auditorium. Mrs. Kamlet is the president of the Cornwall Historical Society. Ms. Grant is a member of the sorority Harriet Terry founded. Here are excerpts of their address.
The Cornwall Wall of Fame is a new tradition for the Cornwall Community, presented jointly by the Cornwall Central School District and the Cornwall Community Foundation. With support from the Greater Cornwall Chamber of Commerce and the Cornwall Lions Club, the Wall of Fame will honor members of the Cornwall Community, present or past, who have made significant contributions to our community, state, country or world.
Our inductee was Harriet Josephine Terry, one of the founders of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first Black sorority in the United States.
“As written in The Cornwall Local, Aug. 31, 1967 In Memoriam: “Harriet J. Terry was a fine example of industry, integrity and perseverance…” by Carrie Taft Harrison, her lifelong friend. As written in The New York Times, July 2, 2019 about Democratic Presidential hopeful, Kamala Harris, “Harris’s Secret Weapon: The Sisterhood of Alpha Kappa Alpha.” What do these two articles have in common, you might wonder? The answer is simple – Hattie Terry and Cornwall-on-Hudson.
Now, here is a quick historical timeline. On Feb. 4, 1885, Harriet Josephine Terry was born in Cornwall on Hudson. In 1898, thirteen year old Hattie and her friend Carrie Taft became members of the Cornwall Presbyterian Church. (The church next to COH Elem.) According to the 1900 census there were 79 Black individuals living in Cornwall. Twenty-six were brick makers, thirteen were laborers and the remaining were domestic servants. We at the Cornwall Historical Society suspect that Harriet’s mother Mary, a widow, was a domestic servant. In 1903, 18 year old Harriet Terry and her friend Carrie Taft graduated from Cornwall-on-Hudson High School. (Now a brick apartment building across from the school district office). In the Cornwall Local of June 25, 1903, it states that Harriet earned Regents credentials during the year, in English History, Cicero, Plane Geometry, Greek History, Botany and First Year German. At the graduation ceremony she presented her essay on Queen Victoria. An article in the same paper indicated that Harriet was enrolled in the Jamaica Normal School in Queens, NY, where she hoped to acquire a teaching certificate. A teaching colleague of Harriet’s from Alabama A. & M. recounted this information.
After taking a trip to Washington, D.C., her father’s birthplace, Harriet fell in love with the environment. There she saw people who looked like she did. She knew then that she had to attend Howard University, an historic Black university. She enrolled in 1906.
It is written in the Alpha Kappa Alpha’s history book that no one could magnetize a room like Harriet Terry. She had the charm, grace, and “ever-present smile” that pulled people toward her. In 1908, nine women invited Harriet and six others to help establish the first African-American, Greek letter sorority in the United States. Alpha Kappa Alpha was born. Its purpose was to create a support network for Black women with like minds, to come together for mutual uplift and to coalesce their talents and strengths for the benefit of others.
The history book continues, “Harriet Terry’s congeniality, coupled with her intellect and organizational skills positioned her to make an imprint on Alpha Kappa Alpha and beyond.” In 1908 she was elected Treasurer. In 1909, she became the first of the sophomores to assume the presidency. Harriet graduated in 1910 as Secretary of her class and with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts. She would later earn a Master of Arts from the University of Vermont, Burlington. In 1922 Harriet became a teacher at Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical College in Huntsville, Alabama, now called Alabama A. & M.
After 37 years at the college, she retired in 1958 but stayed active with AKA. Harriet died in 1967 in Washington, D.C. and is buried in Lincoln Cemetery, Suitland, Maryland. In 1972 Alabama A. & M. constructed Harriet J. Terry Hall. Although she never married or bore children, we of AKA, humbly stand before you today as Harriet’s family and legacy. We are women dedicated to lifelong “service to all mankind.” Some of Harriet’s AKA sisters remember that Terry preached, “the greater the education and training, the easier it is to succeed. There are two things that stand between the idle man and a job – that of education and training.”
Here is a shorter recap: Harriet Terry, a minority child raised by a single mother in COH, graduated from our high school. She attended Howard University, became a founding member and officer in THE FIRST African American sorority in the country whose membership at the time consisted of 16 members. She earned a university degree and taught at Alabama A. & M. all the while staying involved in the AKA sorority.
As of now [October 2019], this year, today, the Alpha Kappa Alpha is local (specifically Iota Alpha Omega), regional and international – with a membership of over 300,000! And, one of its sisters, Kamala Harris, is running for President of the United States. As of now, this year, today, we honor Hattie Terry of Cornwall-on-Hudson, 1903 graduate of Cornwall-on-Hudson High School. She accomplished the unthinkable, in her lifetime. As of now, this year, today, we invite her spirit to come back home to Cornwall.”
