Mary Evelyn Edwards Hunter

Mary Evelyn V. Edwards Hunter (August 11, 1885 – March 4, 1967) was an American educator and advocate.

Early life Hunter was born the fifteenth of seventeen children, on August 11, 1885, in Finchburg, Alabama, to Elijah E. and Frances Edwards (née Moore). As a child, she worked as a bookkeeper for her father's businesses, and taught literacy to adults. She married high school principal J. A. Hunter as a teenager. They both moved to La Porte, Texas, and had 3 children together, including John. He died before the children became adults.

Career Hunter attended Prairie View A&M University to gain teaching credentials, receiving her Bachelor of Science in 1926. She was also one of the first two black members of the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. With the group, she helped grow the membership to nearly 30,000 women of all races. She advocated for the desegregation of the group. She pledged the Beta Gamma (later Iota Zeta Omega) chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She served as the secretary of the Texas branch of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. A member of the Texas Association of Women's Clubs, she also helped found Crockett State School.