BESSIEHARDENPAYNE (1895 -1991) By Lawrence H. Mamiya Lawrence Mamiya is the Paschall-Davis Professor of Africana Studies and Religion at Vassar College. He is the co-editor with Patricia A. Kaurouma of "For Their Courage and For Their Struggles: The Black Oral History Project of Poughkeepsie, NY," and co-author with Lorraine Roberts of "Invisible People, Untold Stories: A Historical Overview of the Black Community in Poughkeepsie. "
Bessie Harden Payne and Rev. Herbert A. Payne
Mrs. Bessie Harden Payne, a native Poughkeepsian, was a prominent, distinguished and articulate leader in the African American community in the city of Poughkeepsie. She was a "driving force behind many of the city's black civic organizations." 1 Born in Poughkeepsie on January 16, 1895, she was the daughter of John and Mary M. Woods Harden. Her paternal grandfather, Mr. James Harden, came from Highland, New York and worked as a waiter on the Hudson River boats in the late nineteenth century. Mr. Harden had also fought in the Civil War. Bessie's mother, Mrs. Mary M. Woods Harden, came to Poughkeepsie in 1892 from Stonington, Connecticut, where her maternal grandfather was a freedman in the early nineteenth century and her father, Henry Woods, worked as a constable in Stonington. Educated in Poughkeepsie schools, Bessie Harden became one of the first black graduates of Poughkeepsie High School, matriculating in the
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