Flemmie Pansy Kittrell

Flemmie Pansy Kittrell (December 25, 1904 – October 3, 1980) was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in home economics. Her Ph.D. focused on nutritional interventions to address high Black mortality rates in the 1930s, and she was also the first African American woman to get a Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Early life and education

Flemmie Pansy Kittrell was born to James and Alice Kittrell on December 25, 1904, in Henderson, North Carolina. Her parents, both sharecroppers, strongly believed in education and encouraged their children to excel academically.

Encouraged by her professors, especially Thomas Wyatt Turner, Kittrell pursued graduate studies in home economics despite the barriers for Black women in higher education at the time. In 1929, Kittrell received the Julius Rosenwald Fund scholarship, as well as the Anna Cora Smith Fellowship awarded by the College of Home Economics at Cornell for her Master of Science. During her time at Cornell she made important connections, including meeting her most influential mentor, child behavior specialist, Ethel B. Waring. Her doctoral dissertation, A study on negro infant feeding practices in a selected community of North Carolina, examined high Black infant mortality rates and identified nutritional interventions such as improved milk formula use.

Career After she completed her undergraduate degree in 1928, Kittrell briefly taught at a high school before becoming the Dean of Students and the Director of Home Economics at Bennett College, a historically Black women's college in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Kittrell went on to draw from the United Nations Charter in her international advocacy. Between 1944–1964 almost 500 children enrolled at Howard University's Nursery School, which became a model for preschool and early childhood research in the United States. Summer schools were held every second year over this period, providing workshops on child development and parent education, and Howard University became known throughout the world as a leader in nutrition and child development. Head Start is now administered by the United States Department of Health and Human Services and provides comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and families. The program operates in every state and some U.S. territories.

Kittrell believed that, amongst other things, home economics should be concerned with low-income and minority families in rural areas in the U.S. and abroad. This reflects her strong commitment to equal opportunity demonstrated throughout her career. She advocated that children be given opportunities and could be successful irrespective of their class, gender, or race.

Personal life While Kittrell was a student at Hampton in 1919, her father died, and just two weeks later, her older sister Mabel died of pellagra, a disease caused by a niacin (vitamin B3) deficiency.

Kittrell died unexpectedly of cardiac arrest at Howard University on October 1, 1980, in Washington, D.C. She was 75 years old.