Zeta Phi Beta’s Alice Dugged Cary, Morris Brown College’s Second Principal, Helped Establish the Second Chapter of Her Sorority

Did you know that the second president of Morris Brown College, a pioneering educator and librarian, was a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. who helped establish one of the sorority’s earliest chapters? Her name was Alice Dugged Cary, and she spent her life opening doors of learning for Black Americans.

Alice Dugged Cary was born in 1859 in New London, Indiana. As Fraternity History & More documents, she graduated from Wilberforce University, the historically Black university in Ohio, in 1881 and began her career as an educator, teaching and serving as an assistant principal in Kansas City, Missouri.

In 1886, Cary was appointed the second president of Morris Brown College, the historically Black college in Atlanta, Georgia. She also became the first Black female principal of an Atlanta public school, building a reputation as one of the city’s most respected educators.

Cary’s most lasting contribution came in the world of books. In 1921, after leading a successful campaign to open Atlanta’s public library system to Black residents, she became the first librarian of the Auburn Avenue Branch of the Carnegie Library, the first public library in Atlanta available to African Americans. As the Historical Marker Databaserecords, it was a landmark victory in a segregated city.

Cary was also a devoted member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. According to Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., she helped establish the sorority’s Beta Chapter at Morris Brown College, as well as Epsilon Zeta, Georgia’s first graduate chapter, cementing a legacy of leadership, learning, and service. Zeta Phi Beta had been founded in 1920 at Howard University.

Alice Dugged Cary died in 1941 in Atlanta, on the campus of the college she had once led. Her legacy lives on in the library she opened and the generations of Black students and readers she served.

From Wilberforce University to Morris Brown College to the shelves of Atlanta’s first library for Black residents, Zeta Phi Beta’s Alice Dugged Cary devoted her life to Black education and access.

We at Watch The Yard would like to commend Soror Alice Dugged Cary for her pioneering contributions to education and her community.

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