Papers of Lucy Miller Mitchell, 1919-1988

A specialist in early childhood education, Lucy Miller Mitchell devoted close to 50 years to improving standards of child care in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Born in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1899, she lived with her mother, Laura Clayton Miller. She was educated from kindergarten through high school at Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute. There, she witnessed Mary McLeod Bethune courageously face down the Ku Klux Klan. After graduating magna cum laude from Talladega College in 1922 with a Bachelor of Science degree, she returned to the Daytona School to teach for one year. Although Bethune and the trustees of the school expressed a wish that the "mantle of leadership" should pass to Lucy, she instead chose marriage to Joseph Mitchell and a move to Boston, Massachusetts. Together they had two children, Laura Mitchell Holland (1924-2006) and Joseph S. Mitchell, Jr (1926-2004).

Concern for the education of her children led Mitchell into the field which became her life work. She met Abigail A. Eliot, a pioneer in nursery education, when she registered her eldest child for admission to Ruggles Street Nursery School and Training Center. Through Eliot's encouragement, Mitchell volunteered and later enrolled in courses at the Nursery Training School. She received certification in 1934, and was awarded a master's degree in early childhood education from Boston University in 1935. As director of the nursery school at Robert Gould Shaw House from 1932 to 1953, Mitchell developed a model school to which many students were sent for field work and practice teaching. She was a member of the structuring committee of Associated Day Care Services of Metropolitan Boston, and later its educational director and acting executive director. In 1953 the governor of Massachusetts appointed Mitchell to a special commission to study the licensing of day care agencies; licensing legislation was passed after ten years' effort. Subsequently, she worked with the Massachusetts Department of Education in designing low-cost extension courses for day care workers. After retirement from the Associated Day Care Services, she trained Peace Corps volunteers to work with children, consulted for National Head Start, and helped launch and implement local Boston early childhood programs.

Mitchell passed away in 2002, after a life devoted to improving standards for group care of young children. Her deep concern for social welfare is reflected in her service as a board member of such organizations as United Community Services of Metropolitan Boston, the Boston YWCA, Family Service Association of Greater Boston, Boston Center for Adult Education, and Fort Hill Mental Health Association. She served as president of the Boston Association of Nursery Education and was among a small group that helped Muriel Snowden and her husband Otto Snowden establish Freedom House, an organization devoted to serving the Roxbury community. Later in her life she also devoted her energy to aging and senior citizen issues. She was a member of several clubs for African American professional women including The Links, Inc., and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

For further biographical information, see the interview with Mitchell in the Black Women Oral History Project sponsored by the Schlesinger Library.