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Mary-Cooke Branch Munford
Mary-Cooke Branch Munford (1865–1938) devoted her
life to the improvement of public education in the South, to the advancement
of women in higher education, and to the improvement of race
relations. She was born in Richmond in 1865 and in 1893 she
married Beverley Bland Munford, a lawyer who shared her social
concerns.
In 1901 Munford was one of five women who formed the
Richmond Education Association, the first organized effort in
Virginia to interest citizens in public schools. She was also
active in the in the Cooperative Education Association which was
formed in 1903 to foster public education for all the citizens of
Virginia. Under her direction as president, this organization
worked for such goals as rural high schools, improved teacher
training, agricultural and industrial education, and the
establishment of local school improvement leagues.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Commonwealth
of Virginia supported four colleges for men, but not a single
college for women (the four state normal schools fell below
collegiate standards and none was accredited). One survey showed
that the majority of Virginia's teachers had no training beyond
high school and a third did not even have a high school degree.
Munford, whose mother had not allowed her to attend college, turned her
energies to state-supported education for women. She started the Coordinate College League to introduce bills for the
establishment of a coordinate college for women in
Charlottesville. The legislation faced opposition from the
University of Virginia alumni and was defeated repeatedly. As a
result of the League's efforts, however, women were admitted to
the College of William and Mary in 1918. Munford was the first
woman member of the Board of Visitors of William and Mary (1920)
and a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of
Virginia (1926).
Munford was a leader on both the local and national level:
the first woman member of the Richmond City School Board, a
founder of the Woman's Club of Richmond (1894); organizer of the
Virginia Inter-Racial Committee; trustee for the Janie Porter
Barrett Industrial School and the National Urban League; and a
member of the Board of Trustees of Fisk University.
Munford once wrote that the major interests in her life were
"education for all the people, fostering better knowledge and
understanding between the races, and especially the rebuilding of
my mother state, Virginia." Her career as a social and
educational reformer directly affected the lives of many
Virginians.
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