Lugenia Burns Hope

Social activist Lugenia Burns Hope was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Following her father’s death, her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she became involved in social work. In 1897, she married Dr. John Hope and the couple moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Dr. Hope accepted a job at Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse College) and became president in 1906. Continuing the tradition of Black women reformers, Mrs. Hope co-founded the Neighborhood Union in 1908. The organization advocated for improved living conditions and access to social services in segregated Atlanta’s Black communities. Mrs. Hope’s work became an international model for community building and influenced grassroots organizing strategies of the Civil Rights Movement. Lugenia Burns Hope died in 1947 in Nashville, Tennessee, and her ashes were scattered near Morehouse College’s Graves Hall.