Dorothy Hughes

Dorothy Pitman Hughes was a feminist, child-welfare advocate, African-American activist, public speaker, author, and African-American small business owner. She was the most compassionate and caring person anyone could ever know. When Dorothy looked at you with her beautiful dark brown doe-eyes, you could feel her love. The statuesque 5'10" "wonder-woman" had an ambiance and stance that made her stand out in a crowd and her fashion sense was ever-present. Dorothy was soft-spoken and calm, even under pressure. But you knew better than to let her demeanor fool you she was a quiet storm. When she saw something that was wrong, Dorothy would not stop until it became right. She never took the easy way out but always made sure that every single situation had been addressed and appropriately handled. After all, who else but Dorothy Pitman Hughes could coerce the City of New York to relocate welfare mothers from midtown Manhattan's condemned apartments and place them in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel? On December 1, 2022, Dorothy passed away peacefully in Tampa, Florida, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Delethia and Jonas Malmsten. Dorothy Jean Ridley was born October 2, 1938 in Lumpkin, Georgia, the third child of Lessie W. Ridley and Melton Lee Ridley. When Dorothy was ten years old, her father was beaten and left for dead on the family's doorstep; the family believes it to be a crime committed by members and Dorothy decided as a child, in reaction to her family's experiences, she would devote her life to improving the circumstances of people through activism. In 1957, at the age of nineteen, Dorothy Ridley moved from Lumpkin, Georgia to New York City. Through the 1960s in New York, she worked as a salesperson, house cleaner, and nightclub singer. Dorothy and her siblings had performed for years as singers in a group called "Roger and the Ridley Sisters." During that period, Dorothy attended numerous community meetings and she began her activism by raising bail money for civil rights protesters. Dorothy met and married the late Bill Pitman, who was also an activist and artist; the couple had a baby girl, Patrice. In the late 1960s, Dorothy Pitman Hughes organized a multiracial cooperative daycare center on the West Side, the West 80th St Community Childcare Center, which was profiled by New York Magazine columnist, . Dorothy first encouraged her long-time friend, Gloria, to begin speaking in public with her about the Women's Movement. Ultimately, Dorothy and Bill divorced, and Dorothy met and married the late Clarence Hughes. The couple's infant daughter, Angela, was often seen on stage in her mother's arms. Dorothy's and Gloria's tours garnered much media buzz and Dorothy motivated Gloria to found a female-operated media source, . Dorothy Pitman Hughes organized the first shelter for battered women in New York City and co-founded the New York City Agency for Child Development, pioneering child-care. She also co-founded, with , the , a pioneering national information center that specialized in nonsexist, multiracial children's education, in 1971. The two women toured together speaking about race, class and gender throughout the 1970s. During that time, when the opportunity presented itself, Dorothy brought the franchise to the Miss Greater New York City pageant to demonstrate that Black was beautiful. Now part of the collection, , is an iconic black and white photograph taken by Dan Wynn in October 1971 in which Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Gloria Steinem were signaling their feminist solidarity with the first popularized by members of the movement. In 1972, Dorothy was a signer of the Ms. Campaign, "We Have Had Abortions," which called for an end to "archaic laws" limiting reproductive freedom. Dorothy Pitman Hughes has been a guest lecturer at , taught a course called "The Dynamics of Change" at the , and she was a guest lecturer at . In 1992, Dorothy Pitman Hughes co-founded the Charles Junction Historic Preservation Society in Jacksonville, Florida using the former Junction homestead to combat poverty through community gardening and food production. Dorothy Pitman Hughes was the first African-American woman to own an office supply/copy center, Harlem Office Supply (HOS), Inc., and to become a member of the Stationers Association of New York (SANY). In May 1997, Dorothy began to offer HOS stock at $1.00 a share to individuals, corporations, partnerships and non-profit organizations focused on African-American children. Dorothy Pitman Hughes, along with her publicist and sister-friend, Yvonne Rose, co-wrote about Dorothy's experiences in Wake Up and Smell the Dollars!(published in 2000 by Tony Rose/Amber Books) advocating small business ownership to other African Americans as a form of empowerment. Dorothy Pitman Hughes was involved in the (UMEZ), a federal program instituted by the Clinton administration in 1994 designating $300 million of federal, state, and city money for the economic development of Harlem. She was also part of the research team that created the Business Resource and Investment Service Center (BRISC), focused on the development of small, locally owned businesses in Harlem. However, she later criticized BRISC when she realized that its resources were being unevenly distributed among small businesses in Harlem. Dorothy Pitman Hughes later wrote "Just Saying... It Looks Like Ethnic Cleansing (The Gentrification of Harlem)" providing advice to African American business owners who might want to utilize similar government programs such as the , signed into law by U.S. President in 2012. Dorothy closed her Harlem Office Supply store in New York and relocated to Jacksonville, Florida, where she opened the Gateway Bookstore. In 2008 Dorothy Pitman Hughes and Gloria Steinem reunited on stage to speak again at here they reenacted their historic raised-fist pose together. Gloria later partnered in Dorothy's efforts in the Northside community of Jacksonville to combat hunger with community gardens, by appearing as a speaker and funding support for the program. honored Pitman Hughes as one of America's "Great Moms." She was also portrayed by in the 2020 film, . In 2021 Laura L. Lovett wrote and published Dorothy Hughes' own accounts of her life, "With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black Community Activism." In addition, Dorothy Pitman Hughes is the recipient of numerous honors, awards and proclamations and her are at the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. Dorothy is survived by three daughters: Delethia Malmsten (Jonas), Patrice Quinn and Angela Hughes. She has two grandsons: Sean Ridley and Devin Baptise. Predeceased siblings include: Ayre-Lou Owens, Mary Cunningham and Melton "Roger" Ridley. Her surviving siblings are Julia Van Mater, Tommy Lee "Tom-Tom" Cherry, Mildred Dent, Alice "Tan" Ridley and James D. "Jimmy" Ridley.