Alumni Remembering ‘a Fighter, and an Activist for the Hungry and Poor’ Stories You May Like New Book Chronicles Cornell’s International Impact Remembering the First Black Woman to Graduate from Cornell Exploring the Intersection of Economics, the Environment, and Human Behavior The first Black woman to earn a PhD on the Hill, Flemmie Kittrell, PhD ’36, became a leading nutrition educator and policymaker By Joe Wilensky After Flemmie Kittrell, PhD ’36, passed away in 1980, the eulogy at her funeral included praise for her dedication to bettering people’s lives around the globe. Schlesinger Library, Harvard Radcliffe InstituteIn academic regalia, 1936. “Wherever … a human need was calling,” the pastor said, “she was on her way to—or had just returned from—doing something about it.” Over the course of a long and distinguished career, Kittrell advanced home economics as a field of study, drawing from the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities. She was a leader in home economics education—heading that department at Howard University, shaping the early U.S. Head Start program, and leveraging the findings of rigorous research in child development and nutrition to improve lives and transform societies. And she holds a notable position in academic history: she was the first Black woman in the U.S. to receive a doctorate in nutrition—and to earn a PhD in any subject at Cornell. “Aunt Flemmie was a fighter, and an activist for the hungry and poor … she was a citizen of the world, and that’s how she saw the work she did in different countries,” her niece, Flemmie Kittrell-Williams, said in a 2022 interview conducted by the College of Human Ecology. “She was a scientist, so she brought home economics to a very different level—a high level—so that it incorporated the scientific and the human aspect.” Kittrell (right) with a research assistant in her Howard University lab. Flemmie Kittrell was born in Henderson, NC, in 1904, the eighth of nine children. She earned a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Virginia’s Hampton University (then the Hampton Institute) in 1928 and taught elsewhere briefly before heading to Cornell, encouraged by her professors to pursue graduate study. She thrived on the Hill, where home economics pioneers Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer had developed a global approach to combating malnutrition. Kittrell did her doctoral research on infant feeding practices in Black communities in rural North Carolina. After earning her degree, she returned to Hampton to teach nutrition—ultimately heading its home economics department, becoming dean of women, and serving as its first Black female trustee. In 1944, she moved to Howard University, where she taught, researched, and chaired the home economics program for the next three decades. On the national level, Kittrell spent time at the White House and discussed issues like global hunger and women’s rights with Eleanor Roosevelt; she also was close friends with human rights activist Dorothy Height and cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. At Cornell, Kittrell found an ideal place for her doctoral studies; the University was a leader in the development of home economics as an academic field. In 1946, the State Department sent Kittrell and several other Howard professors to Liberia to study nutrition—the first full-scale U.S. nutritional survey of another country—and build education networks. While there, Kittrell coined the term “hidden hunger” to describe those who have enough food to feel full, but whose limited diets lead to nutritional deficits. Kittrell coined the term “hidden hunger” to describe those who have enough food to feel full, but whose diets lead to nutritional deficits. Several years later, she received Fulbright funding to help establish a home economics college at a university in India. Stories You May Like New Book Chronicles Cornell’s International Impact Remembering the First Black Woman to Graduate from Cornell She went on to travel extensively—from Hawaii, Sweden, and Japan to countries throughout West and Central Africa—working on behalf of the State Department, other government agencies, NGOs, the U.N., and the Methodist Church. Kittrell (center) chats with shoppers in a Washington, DC, grocery store. “The many sensitive and vital assignments which she was to carry out in Asia and Africa,” one of her biographers noted, “would earn her the title of ‘world commuter.’” It was in front of a national assembly of Methodist delegates that she delivered a powerful call to action, declaring: “While man cannot live by bread alone, it is the foundation upon which all other needs rest ... Bread is necessary to sustain life—but what shall we do with life after it has been sustained?” Bread is necessary to sustain life—but what shall we do with life after it has been sustained? At Howard, she championed bringing international students to the university and also encouraged graduates to seek careers abroad. (Its 1956 yearbook, dedicated to Kittrell, declared the campus a “center of international education.”) Beyond Howard, Kittrell continued her efforts to influence national policymaking. “In the face of transition,” Kittrell once said, “the family and the home must remain the cornerstone from which learning flows to enable society to handle change in a progressive way.” During a visit to Cornell in 1975. Kittrell launched studies on Black children’s health and nutrition in cities. She also helped run the first pilot studies—as well as a nursery school—for the Head Start early childhood education initiative, later training 2,000 workers for the program. Kittrell retired from teaching in 1972 but continued traveling, and returned to the Hill as a visiting research fellow. Human Ecology long had a lecture series in her name; it became the Flemmie Kittrell Visiting Scholar program in 2023. “I didn’t have time to get married or have a family of my own,” she once told her niece, Kittrell-Williams. “My work—that’s my children. The children of the world. And just like I would do with any other family, I do for them, with all my heart and my time.” Top: In 1968, Flemmie Kittrell points to a map showing Cornell home economists’ influence across the globe. All photos courtesy of Rare and Manuscript Collections, unless otherwise indicated. Published February 3, 2025 Comments Elaine Engst 5 Feb, 2025 There is an excellent lecture about Flemmie Kittrell, “To Encircle the World: Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of Home Economics,” by Allison Horrock, 2014, available at https://www.cornell.edu/video/flemmie-kittrell-international-politics-of-home-economics See also the article about it: https://www.human.cornell.edu/about/trailblazers/kittrell Reply Leave a Comment Cancel replyOnce your comment is approved, your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *Comment * Name * Class Year Email * Save my name, email, and class year in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ Other stories You may like Quizzes & Puzzles Cornellian Crossword: ‘All Roads Lead to Ithaca’ Campus & Beyond Commencement 2024 in Photos Alumni Alum’s Youth Baseball Club Fosters Pro Players—and Scholars