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Recovering Frances Virginia And The Frances Virginia Tea Room: Transition Era Activism At The Intersections Of Womanism, Feminism, And Home Economics, 1920-1962, Mildred H. Coleman

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Theses

ABSTRACT This work answers the question “Who was Frances Virginia?” by recovering the story of an Atlanta entrepreneur, Frances Virginia Wikle Whitaker, and her tea room foodservice business. It acknowledges “Frances Virginia,” as the public knew her; and focuses on her career as demonstrative of an under‐theorized form of women’s activism. Her education and proclivity in the once all‐female domain of home economics have important characteristics that are under‐ represented, and often misinterpreted, in today’s discourse. I use a womanist theoretical lens within a historical frame to examine her story as a home economist during the tea room movement of …