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If William Alphaeus Hunton Jr. is an "Unsung Valiant," as his wife, Dorothy, wrote in his biography, Hunton's mother was an even more obscure personality, but one, like her son, worthy of consideration.
We should note, first of all, that Alphaeus was an assistant professor of English at Howard University for 17 years before resigning the position to become active with Paul Robeson as executive secretary of the Council on African Affairs. Later he would migrate to Ghana and continue the work on the "Encyclopedia Africana" started by W.E.B. Du Bois.
From this brief paragraph there is at least a hint of Alphaeus's pedigree, and it is indeed impressive. His grandfather Stanton was a follower of John Brown.
His mother, Addie Waites Hunton, was bom June 11,1866, in Norfolk, Va Her mother died when she was very young, and she was sent to Boston to live with her maternal aunt. As a student at the prestigious Boston Latin School, she excelled and subsequently attended Spencerian College of Commerce in Philadelphia, where she was the first African-American graduate.
She further studied at City College in New York City and at Kaiser Wilhelm University in Strasburg Germany, according to Dorothy Hunton. But another biographer places the college in France. Trained as a sociologist, Waites Hunton taught at Alabama A&M and for a while in Norfolk.
In 1890, she met William Alphaeus Hunton Sr., and three years later they were married and soon living in...