Adams, Florence V. "Frankie"

Florence Adams, born 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. She had attended 1st-8th grade at Bate School, and was a high school and college graduate of Knoxville College. Her work with the YWCA started while she was  in Knoxville. 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 in1931 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. Florence Adams and Whitney Young, Jr. were social work comrades and Kentucky natives. They co-authored Some Pioneers in Social Work: brief sketches; student work book (1957). Adams also influenced community organization and group work on the national level. She was author of 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 was editor of 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, KY. She was the daughter of James and Minnie Trumbo Adams, the youngest of their eight children. For more see Who's Who in Colored America, 1950 and 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.