Marie L. Clinton

Marie Louise Clay Clinton (1871 – January 9, 1934) was an American educator, singer, and church leader. She was the founder and superintendent of the Buds of Promise Juvenile Mission Society, under the Women's Home and Overseas Missionary Society (WH&OMS) of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (A.M.E. Zion Church).

Marie L. Clinton
Marie L. Clinton, from a 1922 publication.
Born	1871 Huntsville, Alabama
Died	January 9, 1934 Tuskegee Institute Hospital, Birmingham
Nationality	American
Occupation(s)	Church leader, educator, singer
Known for	Founder, superintendent of the Buds of Promise Juvenile Mission Society
Spouse	Bishop George Wylie Clinton

Early life and education

Marie Louise Clay was born in 1871, in Huntsville, Alabama,^[1] the daughter of Alfred Clay and Eliza Clay She trained as a teacher at the Central Alabama Academy, and studied music at Clark Atlanta University, graduating in 1891.^[2]

Career

Clay taught school in Hot Springs, Birmingham, and Huntsville. She was also "a soloist of national repute",^[3] and toured for a year with a troupe of jubilee singers.^[1][4]

After marriage, she was active as a bishop's wife and church leader in her own right. She represented A.M.E. Zion women at an international gathering of Methodists in London in 1901.^[1] From her base in Charlotte, North Carolina,^[5] Clinton served as superintendent of the national Buds of Promise Juvenile Mission Society, from its founding in 1904 to 1932.^[2][6][7] She traveled and spoke at churches, and encouraged local congregations to start chapters of the children's program.^[8]

From 1921 to 1931, she was head of the Industrial Home for Colored Girls at Efland, North Carolina.^[9]

Personal life and legacy

In 1901, Marie Louise Clay married George Wylie Clinton, a Bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church, as his second wife.^[3][10] She was widowed in 1921 and she died after a long illness in 1934,^[9] aged 62 years, at the Tuskegee Institute Hospital.^[4][11]

The Buds of Promise program continued to grow in the decades after Clinton's death.^[12] Since 1951, churches in the A.M.E. Zion denomination mark the fourth Sunday in January as "Marie L. Clinton Day".^[2]

References

1. "Sara J. Duncan. Progressive Missions in the South and Addresses with Illustrations and Sketches of Missionary Workers and Ministers and Bishops' Wives". Documenting the American South. 1906. pp. 81–83. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
2. Program, Marie L. Clinton Day (January 27, 2019), Buds of Promise Juvenile Missionary Society.
3. Culp, Daniel Wallace (1902). Twentieth Century Negro Literature: Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. J.L. Nichols & Company. p. 114. ISBN 9780598621122.
4. "Bishop Clinton's Widow is Dead". The Charlotte News. 1932-01-11. p. 9. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
5. Sims, Anastatia (1997). The Power of Femininity in the New South: Women's Organizations and Politics in North Carolina, 1880-1930. Univ of South Carolina Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-1-57003-178-6.
6. Bradley, David Henry (2020-03-09). A History of the A. M. E. Zion Church, Part 2: 1872-1968. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 237. ISBN 978-1-5326-8827-0.
7. Missionary Seer. Department of Foreign Missions of the A.M.E. Zion Church. July 1922. p. 7.
8. "Mrs. Bishop Clinton at Louisville". The New York Age. 1905-09-21. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Bishop Clinton's Wife Dies at Chicago". The New York Age. 1932-01-23. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
10. "J. W. Hood (James Walker), 1831-1918. One Hundred Years of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; or, The Centennial of African Methodism". Documenting the American South. 1895. pp. 268–274. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
11. "Mrs. Marie L. Clinton is Claimed by Death". The Birmingham Reporter. 1932-01-16. p. 1. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.
12. "'Golden Jubilee' of Fashions Nears". The Hanford Sentinel. 1970-09-19. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-05-27 – via Newspapers.com.