Arkansas Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter Inducts First Black Member
The first Black woman to obtain membership to an Arkansas branch of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, has been officially presented with her certificate of membership, making her a part of the Texarkana chapter.
Sharon Fort, 67, traced her lineage through years of study at her local library, according to Shreveport, La., station KTBS. She learned that one of her ancestors was born in 1843 to an enslaved African American woman and the great-grandson of a white landowner who furnished supplies in North Carolina during the American Revolution.
Fort’s lineage was verified in May by NSDAR for membership, making her the first African American to apply for membership in the state of Arkansas. Some 20 family members joined Fort from across the country for the event.
Gale Markley, State Regent of the Arkansas State Society Daughters of the American Revolution (ASDAR) told KTBS the first African American woman joined NSDAR in 1977 and currently “there are hundreds of African American women in our National Society membership.”
Any woman who can prove her lineal descent from patriots of the American Revolution who is 18 and older is eligible to join NSDAR. The organization does not discriminate - - any woman who meets the criteria may join no matter her race, religion or ethnic background. Members tout the group as one of the world’s largest service organizations for women.
Many Black Americans first came to know of the Daughters of the American Revolution through the story of opera singer Marian Anderson, who was denied the opportunity to sing at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. in 1939. Support for segregation of the races meant the organization would not allow the contralto to perform before an integrated audience. Anderson famously performed an open air Easter Sunday concert on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial instead with President Franklin Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in attendance, with the crowd numbering more than 75,000, and radio listeners into the millions.
Fort said the fellow ASDAR members she has met “have been most welcoming.” She continued, “I hope women of color will be inspired to know that all things are possible. It is time to help remove the racial barriers that once hindered this nation from making progress, by joining the DAR organization,” Fort said.
