Birdye Henrietta Haynes (1886–1922)

Birdye Henrietta Haynes was a prominent yet little-known figure in the history of social work. She was the first African American woman to graduate from the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, now the University of Chicago, and she worked at the Wendell House in Chicago and the Lincoln House in New York, settlement houses that provided recreation as well as educational and self-improvement classes to Black youth.

Henrietta Haynes was born in Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) on November 21, 1886. Limited information has been documented about her early childhood. According to a newspaper obituary notice, she attended a mission school in Pine Bluff and joined a Baptist church at age ten. Due to limited economic opportunities, the family—consisting of Haynes, her mother, and her brother George—moved to Hot Springs (Garland County), where she continued in grammar school. However, her education was hampered by limited access to public schools for Black students. Following in her older brother’s footsteps, Haynes left Arkansas for Tennessee, where she lived in a girls’ home to attend the Fisk Preparatory School in Nashville. She then enrolled in Fisk University and completed a BA in three years.

Her brother George, who was an academic and professional mentor and role model for her, was the first African American to graduate with a PhD from Columbia University and was also a social worker and co-founder of the National Urban League. Haynes appears to have followed him in pursuing a similar professional path.

After Haynes graduated from Fisk University in 1909, she worked as a high school teacher in Tennessee and in Texas before leaving in 1911 to pursue further educational studies in Chicago, Illinois. She was one of two African American women selected to receive funding from a Julius Rosenwald fellowship. She completed her studies and received her certificate from the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy in 1914.

While a student, she also worked at the Wendell Phillips Settlement House in Chicago and supervised other Black students from the Chicago School. After she resigned from the Wendell House, she took a position at the Lincoln House in New York in 1915 and remained there for seven years. The Wendell House and Lincoln House were prominent Black settlement houses providing recreational opportunities and classes to Black youth.

In 1922, Haynes resigned from the Lincoln House and moved on to the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in New York City. She was scheduled to begin work in September. However, in June 1922, when she was thirty-five years old, she went in for surgery to have a tumor removed. Following surgery, she died on June 30, 1922, of heart failure.

As a so-called race woman (meaning a pioneering intellectual and activist), Haynes regularly navigated relations with governing boards, largely composed of prominent white members of the community, who controlled her employment and funding as she sought to develop and implement progressive programs to support and uplift the Black communities she served. In spite of her education, training, and acumen, Haynes was micromanaged and largely restricted in what she was permitted to do in her role as a social worker. Still, she had a significant impact within the communities she served.

During her lifetime, she received little recognition or appreciation. However, after her death, tributes poured in from across the country. Representatives from multiple congregations and civic organizations participated in her funeral service, which was attended by several hundred people, including the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell and many other influential members of the community. What remains of her legacy is encapsulated in a grainy newspaper photograph and a few scholarly journal articles.

For additional information:
“Birdye H. Haynes, Social Worker, Dead.” New York Age, July 8, 1922.

Carlton-LaNey, Iris. “The Career of Birdye Henrietta Haynes, a Pioneer Settlement House Worker.” Social Service Review 68 (June 1994): 254–273.

Kemp, Susan P., and Ruth Brandwein. “Feminisms and Social Work in the United States: An Intertwined History.” Journal of Women and Social Work 25, no. 4 (2010), 341–364. Online at https://doi.org/10.1177/0886109910384075 (accessed September 1, 2026).

Nsonwu, Maura B., Kathleen Casey, Sharon Warren Cook, and Noël Busch Armendariz. “Embodying Social Work as a Profession: A Pedagogy for Practice.” Sage Open, September 17, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244013503835 (accessed September 1, 2026).

Carol Miles
Little Rock, Arkansas