Bennetta Bullock Washington (May 1, 1918 – May 28, 1991) was an American educator and community leader, founder and director of
Job Corps for Women, a program of the
United States Department of Labor.
Early life
Bennetta Camille Bullock was born in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, one of the eight children of Rev. George Oliver Bullock and Rebecca Bullock. Her father was a prominent Baptist minister.[1][2] The Bullock family moved to
Washington, D.C. when Bennetta was young, and there she attended
Dunbar High School and
Howard University[3] before she earned a Ph.D. in counseling psychology[4] from
Catholic University of America.[5] Her dissertation title was "Background factors and adjustment: A study of the socio-economic and personal factors in the school and subsequent adjustment of a selected group of high school students".[6]
Career
Washington taught in Baltimore and Washington before she moved into school administration. She served as principal of
Cardozo High School from 1961 to 1964. She was director of the Cardozo Project in Urban Education, and served on the President's Commission on
Juvenile Delinquency. From this work came her book, Youth in Conflict: Helping Behavior-Problem Youth in a School Setting (1963).[7] Of her work with troubled students, she commented, "You have to learn how to handle hostility. You don't handle hostility with hostility. It takes receptivity and empathy — don't say sympathy; that's maudlin and doesn't help at all."[8]
As an education specialist, she was a member of
John Lindsay's Advisory Panel on Decentralization of New York City Public Schools, in 1967,[9] and was a professor of education at the
City College of New York.[10] She was Martin Luther King Scholar in Residence at
Rutgers University in 1969.[11]
Beginning in 1964,[12] Bennetta Washington was founder and director[13] of the Job Corps for Women,[14] a program of the U. S. Department of Labor, and in that role oversaw the creation of job training centers for young women throughout the United States.[15] From 1970 to 1973 she was associate director, Women's Programs and Education, in the
Manpower Administration of the Department of Labor.[16] She retired from the Department of Labor in 1981.[17]
Bennetta Bullock married
Walter Washington in 1941. They had a daughter, Bennetta Jules-Rosette, who became a sociology professor[25] and a biographer of
Josephine Baker.[26] Bennetta Bullock Washington died from cardiac arrest in 1991, aged 73 years, in Washington, D.C.[1][13][17] The District of Columbia State Board of Education (DCSBOE) offers a Bennetta Bullock Washington Scholarship, named in her memory.[27][28]
A photograph of Muriel and
Otto Snowden and the Washingtons, at
Freedom House's 20th anniversary Snowden reception, from Northeastern University Libraries.