July 15, 1865, dawned over Leavenworth, Kansas, a year of promise and peril as the Civil War finally drew to a close. Into this tumultuous world came Nettie Craig Asberry, the sole free-born child of Violet Craig, whose own life had been shaped by bondage and resilience.
By the age of eight, her fingertips had mastered the piano keys, and by thirteen, she was drafting letters in support of suffrage, inspired by Susan B. Anthony’s call for justice. Nettie Asberry’s journey would carry her from prairie classrooms to Tacoma’s halls of power, where, as a founding member of the first NAACP chapter west of the Rockies, she would confront segregation and rewrite the rules of inclusion in America.
Born Free in a Post-Civil War World
Nettie Craig’s childhood unfolded against the backdrop of Reconstruction-era Kansas. She was the youngest of six children born to Violet Craig, a formerly enslaved woman, and William Wallingford, the plantation owner who had held her mother in bondage. Upon emancipation, Violet cast off the Wallingford name and adopted the surname “Craig” for herself and her children, likely in homage to the plantation of her own birth in 1828.
Evidence of young Nettie’s brilliance manifested early. By the tender age of eight, her fingers were already dancing across piano keys, quickly mastering the instrument and even composing her own melodies, showcasing a rare and profound musical gift. Still, her intellectual curiosity extended beyond the musical realm, and at thirteen her world truly expanded when Susan B. Anthony, visiting her abolitionist brother, Leavenworth Timeseditor Daniel R. Anthony, electrified the city with a suffrage speech. Enthralled by Anthony’s clarion call for equality, Nettie became secretary of an adult local Susan B. Anthony Club, already demonstrating a precocious grasp of social justice and a burgeoning commitment to women’s rights. It was here that she first understood the power of organized resistance.
This early dedication paved the way for an extraordinary academic path. Taking advantage of free tuition policies of the time, Nettie first earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas before setting her sights on advanced studies and making history. On June 12, 1883—just one month shy of her eighteenth birthday—Nettie graduated from the Kansas Conservatory of Music and Elocution, having been granted a “Teacher of Music” degree. Historical records suggest this achievement likely made her the first African American woman in the United States to earn a doctoral degree. Armed with this groundbreaking education and unwavering spirit, Nettie began her career teaching music in the all-Black town of Nicodemus, Kansas, and later in bustling cities like Kansas City and Denver, carrying her talents and her convictions wherever she went.
A New Life in the Pacific Northwest
The 1890s brought both heartbreak and renewal. Seeking opportunity in Seattle’s post-1889 Great Fire rebuilding boom, Nettie found herself on a westbound train with her first husband, Albert Jones, in 1890. Her musical prowess quickly found a home, as she became the first organist and musical director at the newly established First African Methodist Episcopal Church. However, tragedy struck in 1893 with Albert’s untimely death, prompting Nettie to briefly return to Kansas before settling in Tacoma, Washington, later that same year…