Minnie Lou Crosthwaite

Minnie Lou Crosthwaite (; August 20, 1860 – January 13, 1937) was an American teacher who became the first African-American woman to pass the teacher exam in Nashville's segregated school system. She later became an instructor and then registrar at Fisk University, and was influential in the social life and the education of the city's African-American community.

Biography Minnie Lou Scott was born on August 20, 1860, in Nashville to Frances McAlister Scott; her father is unknown. She attended Fisk University from 1865 to 1867 (at that time it offered primary education), and afterward was schooled in the public school system, until 1874. Later, she recalled having been at the opening of the Fisk School in 1865; the event made a lasting impression on her. She went back to Fisk in 1874 to receive teacher training and graduated at age 17, in 1877. In 1884 she married Scott Washington Crosthwaite, who held medical degrees from Meharry Medical College in Nashville (1889) and Chicago Homeopathic Medical College (1891), and a degree in divinity from Fisk (1901).

Volunteerism and legacy Crosthwaite raised funds for needy soldiers during World War 1, and then became an important early figure in the foundation of the YWCA, also heading the Fisk chapter. She worked for the Nashville branch of the YWCA, and joined the Southern Interracial League. She was active in other local African-American organizations as well and became friends with people like Nettie Napier and Juno Frankie Pierce. With Pierce, she founded the Tennessee Vocational School for Colored Girls (1923). After she retired from Fisk the joined the alumni board, in 1927, and in that year the family moved to Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and then in 1928 to Detroit. She died there, on January 13, 1937; in 1963, Fisk University named a new women's dorm in her honor.