By: Jordan Meadows, Staff Writer
Annie Wealthy Holland’s life story is inseparable from the story of Black education in the early twentieth-century South.
Born in 1871 in Isle of Wight County, Virginia, Holland entered the world on land adjacent to the Wealthy plantation, where her grandmother had been enslaved. She was named after Annie Wealthy, the plantation owner who had freed her grandfather.
From an early age, Holland understood education as both opportunity and responsibility. She completed her studies at the Isle of Wight County School by the age of sixteen and, with the support of her grandfather, enrolled at Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute.
Like many Black women of her generation, Holland adapted to circumstances with resilience: she worked in New York City as a nurse and later trained as a dressmaker before returning home to earn a teaching certificate.
By the late nineteenth century, Holland had established herself as an educator in Virginia. She taught for years in rural schools, became an assistant principal in 1897, and later served as a principal herself. In 1888, she married Willis B. Holland, also an educator and Hampton graduate, and together they dedicated their lives to teaching Black children during an era when resources were scarce and segregation was rigidly enforced.
Holland’s most far-reaching impact, however, came through her work in North Carolina. In 1911, she became a Jeanes Fund instructor in Gates County, joining the first generation of Jeanes Teachers—Black women who effectively served as “Black superintendents” of rural schools during segregation.
Funded by the Anna T. Jeanes Foundation, these educators trained teachers, introduced industrial and domestic education, and helped schools become centers of community life. In Gates County alone, Holland supervised 22 rural schools and worked with communities to establish agriculture clubs that promoted self-sufficiency and economic resilience.
North Carolina soon recognized her extraordinary leadership. In 1915, Holland became the Jeanes Fund’s state demonstration agent, making her, in effect, the state supervisor of Black elementary schools. When the state created the Division of Negro Education in 1921, her position was formally incorporated into the state system, and she became the State Supervisor of Negro Elementary Schools.
Holland visited counties across North Carolina, met with superintendents and school boards, organized fund drives, and taught demonstration lessons in subjects ranging from reading and writing to nutrition, sewing, and agriculture. A 1917 itinerary required her to visit 21 counties in just over a month. She helped raise money for schools, supported teachers’ professional growth, and even advocated for hiring nurses.
In 1928, Holland founded the first parent-teacher association for African Americans in North Carolina, holding its inaugural meeting at Shaw University in Raleigh. The organization became known as the North Carolina Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers.
Annie Wealthy Holland died on January 6, 1934, at the age of 63, while addressing a group of teachers in Louisburg, North Carolina. Her death came in service to the profession she had devoted her life to advancing. She was buried in Franklin, Virginia, half an hour north of Murfreesboro, North Carolina.
On the tenth anniversary of the founding of the North Carolina Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers, members planted a tree in her memory at Shaw University, symbolizing the growth she had nurtured across the state. Her importance was further recognized in 1935, when she was featured in Five North Carolina Negro Educators, a collaborative publication prepared by the biracial team under the Supervision of N. C. Newbold. Holland stood alongside figures such as Simon Green Atkins and James B. Dudley as one of the architects of Black education in North Carolina.
Decades later, at a historical marker unveiling ceremony in Sunbury, retired history professor Dr. Valinda Littlefield delivered the keynote address, emphasizing that Holland’s most lasting contribution was “providing educational access to the masses.” Littlefield noted. “Before people can be voters or activists,” Littlefield explained, “their basic needs have to be met.”
The ceremony also highlighted the role of NC Rep. Rodney D. Pierce of Halifax County, who applied for the marker. Pierce said he immediately recognized the importance of Holland’s story and its need for public recognition.
Today, Holland’s name lives on in places such as North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where students reside in Holland Hall and gather at Holland Bowl.
