The Last American Born in the 19th Century, a Granddaughter of Slaves, Has Died

The last American born in the nineteenth century died on May 12. Susannah Muschatt-Jones, a granddaughter of slaves, died at a nursing home in New York City at the age of 116. Her mother, a sharecropper in Alabama, reportedly lived to the age of 117.

After graduating from high school, Muschatt-Jones was accepted into the teacher education program at what is now Tuskegee University in Alabama. But her parents were unable to afford the tuition. After years as a domestic worker in New York, Jones used her savings to create a college scholarship fund at her high school for African American women who could otherwise not afford to go to college.