Jennifer Business College: First African-American Secretarial School in the Nation's Capital

W. Emile Jennifer, Pres.

W. Emile Jennifer established the first African-American business college in Washington in 1920 in response to news that the U.S. Civil Service Commission would finally be accepting applications from Blacks for clerical jobs. 

World War I (1914-1918) was over and the government continued to expand, so much so, that the Washington School for Secretaries was established. The school, which didn't accept Blacks, opened its doors on Monday, March 8, 1920. It was founded by Dr. Richard T. Ely, 65, a prominent economist, author and former professor of President Woodrow Wilson's at Johns Hopkins University.  Ely was also the founder of the prestigious American Economic Association.

Site, Jennifer Business College, 1243 New Jersey Ave., NW

In contrast, W. Emile Jennifer was an African-American man, age 20, who worked as a public stenographer in his parents' home while earning a bachelors degree in law at Howard University. He had the vision to launch the first business college in D.C. for African-American students, and did so nine days after the Washington School for Secretaries opened on Wednesday, March 17, 1920.

Jennifer's mother, Syme, provided capital for the venture and served as Secretary-Treasurer. The young entrepreneur, Emile, developed the curriculum, provided instruction and handled day-to-day operations including marketing.

Syme L. Jennifer, Secy.-Treas.

Ads with the headline "Wanted - Colored Students to Train" for jobs as stenographers and clerical workers were placed in daily newspapers such as The Evening Star in Washington as well as African-American newspapers including the Washington Bee and the Washington Eagle, and the Pittsburgh Courier in Pennsylvania.

The Crisis, edited by W.E.B. DuBois, and published by the NAACP, carried ads that touted the headline, "Capitalize Your Summer Months at the Nation's Capital... Special Summer Courses Now Forming."

In addition to training in shorthand (Gregg and Pittman), typing, mimeographing, multigraphing and card punch, the school promised special services such as "individual coaching" and "assistance in procuring positions after graduation." 

Ad, Chicago Defender, 1922

The Jennifer Business School operated from 1920 until 1960. Sadly, there is little information about the school in the public domain. It was only happenstance that I learned about it at all, scouring obituaries. Mr. Jennifer's 1975 obituary only mentions the existence of the school. 

I spent the last several months researching, emailing and making phone calls before I was finally able to locate a relative about three weeks ago who graciously was willing to talk to me. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who would like to add to the body of research I'm collecting about Mr. Jennifer and the Jennifer Business School. 

AfroAmerican, November 1938

In January 2013 I wrote a blog post where I incorrectly stated that Cortez W. Peters started the first African-American business college in Washington. I am updating that information with the table below of non-degree conferring schools in D.C. offering special training to Blacks. The data was compiled by the late Dr. Lillian Dabney Dearing for her thesis, "The history of schools for Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1807-1947" (Catholic University, 1949). It indicates that the Jennifer School was founded in 1920 and the Peters School in 1934:

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In addition to operating the Jennifer Business School, Mr. Jennifer was a pianist who at one time was affiliated with Duke Ellington, and performed around town with the Jennifer Society Orchestra which he founded. 

He also served alongside his mother in the Civil Defense as an air raid warden. Mr. Jennifer's father, Prof. William Jennifer, was an educator, attorney and statistician with the federal government.

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Then & Now: Miami Vies for 2016 Democratic National Convention

Source: Ocean Drive Magazine, July/August 2014

'When Harry Met Sally' Writer Nora Ephron: "Only White House intern Kennedy didn't make a pass at"

Nora Ephron (2nd from left) and RFK in The White House, 1961

Me and JFK - now it can be told: How NORA EPHRON was the only White House intern Kennedy didn't make a pass at (...maybe it was the dress that looked like processed cheese) 

By Nora Ephron
Daily Mail

I was an intern in the JFK White House. I was. 

This is not one of those humor pieces where the writer pretends to some experience currently in the news in order to make an ‘amusing’ point. 

It was 1961, and I was hired by Pierre Salinger to work in the White House press office, the very same place where Mimi Fahnestock was to work the following year. 

And now that Mimi Fahnestock has been forced to come forward and admit that she had an affair with JFK, I might as well tell my story too. 

I notice that all the articles about poor Mimi quote another woman in the press office, Barbara Gamarekian, who fingered Fahnestock in the oral history archives at the Kennedy Library. Gamarekian cattily pointed out, according to the newspapers, that Mimi ‘couldn’t type.’ 

Well, all I can say to that is: Ha. In fact: Double ha. 

There were, when I worked there, six women in Pierre Salinger’s office. One of them was called Faddle (her best friend, Fiddle, worked for Kennedy), and her entire job, as far as I could tell, was autographing Pierre Salinger’s photographs. 

Fiddle’s job was autographing Kennedy’s. Typing was not a skill that anyone seemed to need, and it certainly wasn’t necessary for interns like me (and Mimi, dare I say), because THERE WAS NO DESK FOR AN INTERN TO SIT AT AND THEREFORE NO TYPEWRITER TO TYPE ON. 

Yes, I am still bitter about it! Because there I was, not just the only young woman in the White House who was unable to afford an endless succession of A-line sleeveless linen dresses just like Jackie’s, but also the only person in the press office with nowhere to sit. 

And then, as now, I could type one hundred words a minute. Every eight-hour day there were theoretically forty-eight thousand words that weren’t being typed because I DIDN’T HAVE A DESK.  Click to continue reading in the Daily Mail.