[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 182 (Friday, November 16, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1537-E1538]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      HONORING THE LIFE AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF ELLA PHILLIPS STEWART

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. BARBARA COMSTOCK

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 16, 2018

  Mrs. COMSTOCK. Mr. Speaker, I rise to inform you and our colleagues 
about a special ceremony that took place in Berryville, Virginia on 
October 6, 2018, to honor the extraordinary life of Ella Phillips 
Stewart, an African-American woman born in 1893, in the Longmarsh 
District of Clarke County, that is situated in the beautiful Shenandoah 
Valley. Ella's parents, Henry H. Phillips and Eliza T. Phillips, were 
sharecroppers who chose to send Ella to live with Henry's mother in the 
village of Stringtown, outside of Berryville. An outstanding student, 
Ella won several major scholarships to what was then the Storer Normal 
School, later Storer College, a historically African-American College 
in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Ella's upbringing in Clarke County provided 
her with the values and education that were a foundation for later 
professional success and national and international recognition.
  After successfully matriculating from Storer, Ella was accepted by 
the University of Pittsburgh's School of Pharmacy and became the

[[Page E1538]]

first African-American woman to graduate from that program in 1916. In 
the same year, Stewart passed the state examination, becoming the first 
African-American female pharmacist in the state of Pennsylvania. An 
entrepreneur at heart, Ella soon opened her own drugstore at the 
General Hospital in Braddock, Pennsylvania and, in 1918, moved back to 
Pittsburgh, where she again established her own business, Myers 
Pharmacy. After practicing as pharmacists in Youngstown, Ohio for a 
couple of years, she and her husband, William Wyatt Stewart, a fellow 
graduate of the University of Pittsburgh's Pharmacy School, opened 
Stewart's Pharmacy in Toledo, Ohio, in 1922, which they operated until 
1945, when they sold the business and retired. Located in Toledo's 
Pinewood District, the pharmacy was a popular neighborhood gathering 
place. The Stewarts, who owned the building and lived in the spacious 
apartment above the pharmacy, often hosted special visitors from out of 
town, including Marian Anderson and W.E.B. Du Bois.
  Despite the inherent challenges of successfully operating a drug 
store and pharmacy, Ella Phillips Stewart found the time and energy to 
be involved in numerous civic organizations during her working career 
and in retirement. Her activities at a local level included leadership 
in the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA), the local chapter of 
the NAACP and the Enterprise Charity Club, a social service 
organization run by African-American women. From 1944 to 1948, she 
served as president of the Ohio Association of Colored Women, and from 
1948 to 1952, as president of the National Association of Colored 
Women's Clubs (NACWC). As leader of the NACWC, Stewart forcefully spoke 
out against segregation, discrimination and racial stereotyping. In 
1961, she became an inaugural member of the Toledo Board of Community 
Relations, which worked to improve race relations in the city, and to 
ensure enforcement of civil rights laws. As Ella Stewart's national 
stature grew, she was asked to serve in a variety of roles at the 
national and international levels. She was appointed by President 
Dwight Eisenhower in the post-World War II era, as a member of the 
Women's Advisory Committee on U.S. Defense Manpower and, in 1959, she 
was appointed to the National Advisory Committee for the White House 
Conference on Aging.
  Comfortable working in an international setting, Ella Stewart was 
appointed as an American delegate to the International Conference of 
Women of the World, held in Athens, Greece, in 1952. She subsequently 
spent time during the 1950s touring as a goodwill ambassador for the 
United States, traveling to Pakistan, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), the 
Philippines, Japan and Hong Kong, among other nations. In 1963, she was 
appointed to the United States commission of the United Nations 
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), traveling 
to many nations as an ambassador advocating for improved education and 
literacy around the world. Along her life's journey, Ella received many 
awards and honors, including as an original inductee into the Ohio 
Women's Hall of Fame, recipient of the Doctorate of Humane Letters from 
the University of Toledo and similar honors from the University of 
Pittsburgh. Yet, the recognition she treasured the most was having an 
elementary school in Toledo named after her, the Ella P. Stewart 
Academy for Girls, in 1961, which now has a museum that houses 
Stewart's plaques and awards, and the memorabilia she collected on her 
many international tours.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that you and our colleagues join me in honoring 
the life of an extraordinary African-American woman and favorite 
daughter of Clarke County, born into poverty during the era of 
segregation, who overcame these disadvantages by applying the values 
she learned as a child growing up in tiny Stringtown, Virginia, and 
making the most of the education she received during those difficult 
times, to become a fearless trailblazer in her profession of Pharmacy, 
a successful businesswoman, a civil rights leader who worked for 
greater harmony among various races and cultures, and an American 
goodwill ambassador who successfully contributed to greater 
international peace and understanding.

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