Sara A. Collins Fernandis (1863-1951)

Sara A. Fernandis, a contemporary of Jane Addams, founded the first Black Social Settlement House in the United States in Washington, D.C. She received her MSW degree from New York University.

Hers was a life long career of organizing social welfare and public health activities in the segregated Black communities of the period. She organized the Women's Cooperative Civic League in Baltimore which worked for improved sanitation and health conditions in Black neighborhoods. Ms. Fernandis became the first Black social worker employed by the Baltimore Health Department in the early 1900's. She lived to see her goal of "establishing the public purpose" begin to be achieved.