Juno Frankie Pierce

Juno Frankie Seay was born enslaved c. 1864 in Smith County, Tenn. She attended John G. McKee Freedmen's School and Roger Williams University, both in Nashville, and later taught at the Belleview School for African American children. She married Clement Pierce and moved with him to Texas, returning to Nashville after his death. A member of church and secular women's clubs, Pierce was an active suffragist and a fierce advocate for African American girls' education. She founded the Tennessee Vocational School for Colored Girls and the Nashville Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, and helped raise funds for the Blue Triangle Branch of the YWCA. A member of First Baptist Church, Capitol Hill, Pierce died in 1954 and was buried at Greenwood Cemetery.