Amanda Gray Hilyer

Amanda Gray Hilyer (24 March 1870 – 29 June 1957) was an African American entrepreneur, pharmacist, civic worker, and civil rights activist. She was the first black woman to own and operate a pharmacy in Washington D.C.

Early life Amanda Victoria Brown She attended public schools in Kansas and married, aged 23 in 1893, She obtained her pharmaceutical graduate degree in 1903. The Grays' pharmacy, at 12th and U Streets NW, sat in the heart of the black commercial district, Gray acted as secretary of the Treble Clef Club, and was a member of the Booklovers Club. and President and member of the board of the Ionia R. Whipper Home for Unwed Mothers. of which she was a life-member. She was also involved in helping to preserve the Frederick Douglass House in Anacostia.

Death and legacy Gray Hilyer died at home on 29 June 1957, after suffering a stroke. She was 87 years old. Her beneficiaries included Berean Baptist Church, where her funeral was held, and to which she funded a window in memory of her husband, Arthur Gray. She also left significant contributions to the Ionia Whipper Home, and to Howard University, as well as fifty dollars each to the Phillis Wheatley YWCA and Stoddard Baptist Home. She was buried in Columbian Harmony Cemetery, with her first husband. She was remembered as a woman who 'dedicated her life to the educational, social, and moral uplift of black people, particularly those in Washington D.C'.