CHAPTER LXX.
MISS META E. PELHAM.
This young lady, though born in Virginia, went with her parents to Detroit and was there educated in the city schools, from which she graduated at the head of her class of more than fifty pupils, there being only four of Afro-American birth. This is certainly one instance in which co-education of the races was treated with fairness (at least in this respect), as is always a very noted feature of the management of the schools in Detroit. She then entered Fenton College, in Michigan also, and took a normal course. As her health was not robust she did not teach school very long, but entered upon a most encouraging and successful career in connection with the Plain Dealer, which marked the beginning of her newspaper work. Mr. Penn, in "Afro-American Press," says of her:
She is a woman of most excellent traits of character and has a prolific and productive brain. Miss Pelham is not so well known as many lady writers of less ability, because, in her entire writings, she has used no nom de plume or signature.
The Plain Dealer of May, 1888, speaks of her in the following very complimentary terms:
Since the inception of the Plain Dealer the influence of woman has sustained it in adversity; the product of her mind has given lustre to its columns, and now, more than ever, much of its success, in the character of its productions, is due to her. To Miss Meta Pelham is due the credit of this aid, who has always taken an active interest in