Adrienne McNeil Herndon

Adrienne Elizabeth McNeil Herndon (1869–1910) was an actress, professor, and activist in Atlanta, Georgia. While admittedly an African American to friends and colleagues, she performed with the stage name Anne Du Bignon. She was one of the first African American faculty at Atlanta University, where she was a peer of W. E. B. Du Bois. She was married to prominent businessman Alonzo Herndon.

Early life and education Adrienne Elizabeth McNeil was born on July 22, 1869, in Augusta, Georgia, to the unwed couple Martha Fleming and George Stevens. Her mother, seventeen at the time of her birth, was a domestic servant and seamstress who had been born into slavery, while her father was a light-skinned man who abandoned the family shortly after Herndon's birth. She is described by historian Rebecca Burns as "short and lithe with a lively manner and sophisticated bearing with her creamy skin, wavy brown hair, and dark eyes, Adrienne moved easily and kept her racial background a secret". She attended West Broad Street School, Savannah's first elementary school for African American children.

Musical and dramatic performances In 1894, shortly after her marriage to Alonzo Herndon, Herndon traveled to Boston to study at the Boston School of Expression. Herndon embraced her racial ambiguity, and described her background as French and Creole in the press.

Herndon hired an agent with the hopes of moving her career to the London theater scene, and performed two additional engagements in Lynn, Massachusetts, and Bellow Falls, Vermont, but her additional attempts to meet with Belasco failed, potentially due to the discovery of her race. Teaching physical exercises, voice drills, and public speaking, she transformed the practice of elocution, then a required component of the Atlanta curriculum. Under her direction, student dramatic performances became increasingly popular. In 1900, she initiated an annual speaking contest to be held during the commencement season.

Activism

Herndon supported black suffrage. Du Bois and Adrienne Herndon were colleagues at Atlanta University. In October 1904, Alonzo signed the Ontario Conference led by Du Bois. along with Reverend Henry H. Proctor met with the city mayor and chief of police to discuss safety for victims and justice for the rioters.

As the Herndon's became wealthier, they planned to build a home together, a mansion near Atlanta University. Herndon was heavily involved in its planning, working closely with a team of black craftsmen on a Beaux Arts design that included fifteen rooms and a personalized mural of Alonzo's life.

Before the Herndon Home was completed, Herndon died of Addison's disease on April 10, 1910. In 1947, her son, Norris, a 1919 graduate of Atlanta University, established the Herndon Foundation, which maintains the house. He helped transform the house into a museum in 1973, and it was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 2000.