Penny Hodge

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Penny Hodge
Born
Penelope Anderson

1920
DiedJuly 5, 2016
Canada
NationalityCanadian
Occupation(s)Activist
Office worker

Penelope "Penny" Hodge (1920 – July 5, 2016) was a Canadian office worker and activist.

Life and career[edit]

The daughter of Martin Anderson, a Baptist preacher, and Alfaretta Berry, a teacher, she was born Penelope Anderson in Digby, Nova Scotia and grew up on a farm in Yarmouth. Hodge was educated at a segregated public school. After graduating from high school, she attended teacher's college in Truro. After two years of teaching, she was hired as a clerk by the National Research Council in Ottawa. After three years, she moved to Toronto; she worked briefly for the YWCA and then became a clerk at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, retiring in 1986.[1][2]

Around 1952, she joined the Canadian Negro Women's Association (CANEWA), later the Congress of Black Women of Canada; she served as treasurer, then vice-president before becoming president in 1956. Hodge also provided administrative support for the Ontario Black History Society on a volunteer basis and served as historian for the First Baptist Church in Toronto.[1]

She was married twice: first to Rupert Hodge and then to a Mr. LaVaughn.[3]

In 2012, she received the Mary Matilda Winslow award from the Ontario Black History Society.[4]

She died in hospital at the age of 96.[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Hill, Lawrence (1996). Women of Vision: The Story of the Canadian Negro Women's Association, 1951-1976. Dundurn. pp. 29–32. ISBN 1895642183.
  2. ^ "Foremothers of Black Women's Community Organizing in Toronto". Atlantis. 24 (2). 2000.
  3. ^ a b "Penelope LaVaughn (Anderson) Hodge". Toronto Star. July 10, 2016.
  4. ^ "Honour bestowed". Town Crier. February 14, 2012. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved February 5, 2017.