Portrait of Alberta Virginia Scott, ca. 1898. (15123985526)
Alberta Virginia Scott (c. 1875 — August 30, 1902) was an American educator. She was the first African-American graduate of Radcliffe College, in 1898.
Alberta Virginia Scott was born near Richmond, Virginia. Her mother worked as a cook.[1] She raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her family moved when she was six years old. Her family were members of the historic Union Baptist Church in Cambridge.[2] Scott attended Allston School (finishing in 1889)[3] and then Cambridge Latin School, graduating with the class of 1894.[4]
In 1898, Alberta Virginia Scott became the first African-American graduate of Radcliffe College.[5][6]
Alberta Scott died in 1902, in Cambridge, aged 26 years after a 16 month illness attributed to overwork and grief after the loss of her father.[9] "Her death cuts off what should have been a useful and creditable life of work among those of her race," concluded an obituary in a Cambridge newspaper.[8]
There is a placard about Alberta V. Scott in Cambridge, placed by the Cambridge African American History Project in 1993.[10] The Association of Black Harvard Women (ABHW) offers an Alberta V. Scott Mentorship Program, named in her honor.[11]
