Hortense Ridley was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1899. Both of her parents were teachers, although her mother stopped teaching to raise a family. In On Being 100: 31 Centurians Share Their Extraordinary Lives and Wisdom, she spoke about a loving, nurturing childhood where she met some extraordinary people through her father. They would come to visit his school, then stay for dinner, the evening, or even the night. Jim Crow laws and segregation often made their home the only place for people like Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.
She went to an almost all white school and learned how to be resilient, confident, and even optimistic in the face of discrimination. She graduated from Washburn University and had planned to become a school teacher, but was instead recruited by the National YWCA. They were looking to hire a Girl Reserves Secretary for a YWCA that had just purchased a facility in Montclair. Would she be interested?
She remembers getting off the train and seeing the big old mansion built in 1796 by Israel Crane from the train station and thinking that would be her home. She lived in the small room at the top of the stairs on the second floor and got to work organizing classes, clubs, and activities for the African American girls. Although she wasn’t teaching in the classroom, she was certainly teaching and mentoring these girls.
She met her husband, Harrison Tate, a widow with a son named Herbert. Once they married in 1928, the new Mrs. Tate left her job at the YWCA and began as a teacher and counselor at the Robert Treat School in Newark. in On Being 100, she claims that she applied for a job in Montclair but was turned down. “They claimed I was too old, but I know they didn’t have any black teachers.”
Despite leaving the YWCA, she remained involved for the remainder of her long life, serving as a guiding light in the YWCA and a mentor to so many women and girls. Officially, she served the YWCA as a committee member, board member, and its president. Like her parents did for her, she stressed the value of education, instilled a pride in African American history, and showed them how to find joy and purpose in each and every day.
member of the Montclair Public Library, the Montclair Human Relations Council, the League of Women Voters
With Mary McLeod Bethune, she founded the National Council for Negro Women in 1935. She was also an active member of St. Mark’s Church, Montclair Public Library, the Montclair Human Relations Council, the League of Women Voters, and Alpha Kappa Alpha.
She lived to be 104 years old, dying in 2003.
Photo Credit: Liane Enkelis. On Being 100: 31 Centenarians Share their Extraordinary Lives and Wisdom. Roseville, CA. Prima Publishing, 2000