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Betty Hill (1876–1960) was an early 20th-century civil rights and women’s rights leader. Her efforts were significant in making certain that segregation and racial discrimination were unable to gain a foothold in Southern California as it did in the South. ==Early life== Betty Hill was born Rebecca Jane Lapsley around 1876 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father built the first school for African Americans in Davidson County, Tennessee. It is believed that her grandfather purchased his wife out of slavery. She attended her father's school and later attended public school in Nashville. She studied religion at Roger Williams University, an all-black institution in Nashville that was founded in 1866. It originally opened as a college for ex-slaves, and one of its founders was her (probable) uncle Daniel L. Lapsley, an attorney and justice of the peace who was forced to leave the state due to racial persecution. Roger Williams University was closed in 1905, reopened in 1909, and merged with LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis in 1927. By 1898 she was married to a Buffalo soldier, also from Nashville, named Abraham Houston Hill, a sergeant in Company B of the 24th Infantry Regiment. At that time he was stationed in Oklahoma, but soon took part in the Spanish–American War. After a brief return to the United States he took part in the Philippine–American War of 1902. His wife, Betty went with him. In 1905, Sgt. Hill was noted as a distinguished marksman and expert rifleman who made the top score at the infantrymen’s competition for the United States Army, and his skill was reported in newspapers across the country. Later, after the retirement of their mutual friend Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, the chaplain of the 24th Infantry, she reportedly briefly took over chaplain duties until a new chaplain was assigned for duty. If so, it is uncertain when exactly this was. Lt. Col. Allensworth retired from the Army on April 7, 1906, and his replacement, Rev. Washington E. Gladden of Denver, took over chaplain duties in early May, but Allensworth was reported to have been relieved from duty with his regiment and forced to retire on July 1, 1905. According to Claude Hudson, a long-time president of the Los Angeles NAACP, she held this role for a period of about nine months. In 1908 the couple was living at Madison Barracks, in Jefferson County, New York. Sgt. Hill retired from the Army in 1913 and the couple moved to Los Angeles, where Lt. Col. Allensworth retired to in 1905. The Hills chose a modest home at 1655 W. 37th Place in Los Angeles, near the intersection of Exposition Blvd. and Western Ave., in the West Jefferson District. It is less than a mile and half from the University of Southern California (USC) and Exposition Park. (Today the house and homesite are listed as a Los Angeles Cultural Monument.) Meanwhile Col. Allensworth participated in the formation of the historically black town of Allensworth in Tulare County, in central California. Many of the earliest residents of the town of Allensworth were retired members of the 24th Infantry. The Hills were among those who purchased land in Allensworth. Today the land is used for growing crops. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Betty Hill (civil rights leader)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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