Righting the past: Ella L. Jordan, civic leader, dead at 75

Editor’s note: This is the 24th in a series of historical obituaries written today to honor the men and women of the past who were denied the honor at the time of their death because of discrimination due to their race and/or gender.

Mrs. Ella L. Jordan, a devoted community leader, educator and political activist who founded the Pensacola chapter of the Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, died on December 2, 1948.

Ella Louise Alexander was born in Florida on May 15, 1873. She married P. Albert Jordan, six years her junior, in Pensacola on January 16, 1906. Albert worked as a porter at a hardware store while Ella remained home. He would later work as a chauffeur and truck driver.

The couple thrived. In 1907, they bought a house on North F Street that became a well-known gathering place where the Jordans regularly hosted parties. Ella also operated a well-attended “winter school” from her home in the early 1910s. They bought a new home in the bustling West Hill neighborhood at 417 N. B St. in 1917 and purchased additional property during the 1920s.

As she entered her 40s, Ella took increasingly prominent positions in local community groups. Contemporaries called her an “ardent club worker” and a “great secret order lady.” She attended state conventions of the Knights of Pythias and the International Order of Twelve Knights and Daughters of Tabor, and she served as president of Pensacola’s Ladies Interdenominational Council in the 1920s and the Margaret Murray Washington Club in the 1930s. Her state influence grew when she was appointed as Grand Inspectrix for the Pythians. At a time when Black women’s clubs led the fight against racism and sexism by undertaking successful voter registration drives and essential human service work, Ella Jordan was the recognized leader of Pensacola’s Black women.

Righting the past: Their history wasn't just forgotten, it was buried. Today we tell their stories.

In 1929, Ella L. Jordan founded the City Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in Pensacola. It became affiliated with the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, a leading charitable and civic organization and the oldest national African-American women’s organization. The Pensacola chapter brought together ten local women’s clubs, including the Royal Sixteen, Les Amies des Amies, the Elite Madames, Ladies of Distinction and Sisters of Soul Federated Clubs. Jordan served as the group’s first president until at least 1937.

Mrs. Jordan and the Pensacola Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs took a leading role in providing charitable aid during the Great Depression. The group began using a house at 423 N. C St., a block from Jordan’s home, to collect and distribute food and clothing to people in need. As one Pensacolian later recalled: “My father would bring vegetables, potatoes, corn and other goods, and [Jordan] would distribute them. She was really something.”

Jordan coordinated with relief organizations across the city, including the Red Cross, and she was executive secretary of Pensacola Black Community Chest, organized in 1931. As the Depression deepened, Jordan’s work increased. In 1934, the Pensacola Journal called Jordan “one of the leading civic workers of the colored race.” Yet, she, too, suffered. In 1938, the Jordans lost much of the property they had acquired to delinquent taxes.

The couple kept their B Street house, where they lived until Mrs. Jordan’s death on December 2, 1948. The house on C Street that Mrs. Jordan used during the Depression was purchased by the Pensacola chapter of the Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in 1951. It would be named the Ella Jordan Federated Club Home. In the 1970s, the association celebrated “Ella Jordan Day.” Yet the home slowly fell into disrepair. The first major renovation of the historic home won many accolades in the early 1980s, but it was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Following a 15-year renovation effort led by Beverlynn Baines and Georgia Blackmon, the house opened as the Ella Jordan African American History Museum in 2022.

Mrs. Ella L. Jordan leaves a legacy for young girls and women to be involved in their communities and make them better than what they found.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Righting the past: Ella L. Jordan, civic leader, dead at 75