Adams, Florence Victoria "Frankie"
(born: 1902 - died: 1979)Florence V. Adams, the youngest of eight children born to James and Minnie Trumbo Adamsl in Danville, KY, was a professor at the Atlanta University School of Social Work, the first social work program accredited for African Americans. Adams was a professor at the school from 1931-1964.
Adams' education began in Danville, where she attended 1st-8th grade at Bate School and was a high school graduate and college graduate of Knoxville College.
Her work with the YWCA started while she was in Knoxville, TN. With the encouragement of her friend Frances Williams, Frankie Adams completed her master's degree at the New York School of Social Work in 1927 [source: Black Women Oral History Project, "Interview with Frankie Adams," April 20 and 28, 1977, pp. 101-121]. From New York, Adams moved to Chicago to become an industrial secretary at the YWCA. She left Chicago in 1931 to join the Atlanta School of Social Work.
In 2000, the Atlanta University School of Social Work was renamed the Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work. Both Kentucky natives, Florence Adams and Whitney Young, Jr. were social work comrades. They co-authored Some Pioneers in Social Work: brief sketches; student work book (1957).
Adams influenced community organization and group work on the national level. She wrote Women in Industry (1929), Soulcraft: Sketches on Negro-White Relations Designed to Encourage Friendship (1944), and The Reflections of Florence Victoria Adams, a history of the Atlanta University School of Social Work (published posthumously in 1981). She also wrote many articles and edited the Black and White Magazine. The Frankie V. Adams Collection is in the Atlanta University Center Archives.
Florence "Frankie" Adams is buried in the Hilldale Cemetery in Danville.
For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950; In Black and White. A guide to magazine articles, newspaper articles, and books concerning Black individuals and groups, 3rd ed., edited by M. M. Spradling. ; "Frankie Adams" in the NASW Social Workers Pioneers Biography Index (online); and "Interview with Frankie V. Adams, April 20 and 28, 1977," in The Black Women Oral History Project, pp. 101-122.