Carlotta Stewart Lai

Carlotta Stewart Lai 1881 –1952

11″ x 14″ acrylic on panel 2021

Lai was an educator and administrator in the Hawaiian public schools for four decades and the first African American school principal in Honolulu.  She worked as a teacher and educational leader at a time when these occupations were largely closed to African Americans on the U. S. mainland, and she achieved professional success at a time when African Americans represented only 0.2 percent of the population of Hawaii.

Links to more information:

Black Past

Wikipedia