Gilbert Academy Margaret Davis Bowen (May 24, 1894 – April 20, 1976) was a religious leader, civil rights activist, and educator.
She was the first principal of the Gilbert Academy, a private Black preparatory school in New Orleans, during the late 1930s.
She was the first African American to attend the National German-American Teachers' Seminary, part of the University of Wisconsin, where she studied German and became one of its first two Black graduates.
[7][1][8] She was hired to be the first president and principal of the Gilbert Academy, a private Black preparatory school in New Orleans, on November 21, 1940.
[7][9] Bowen was a advocate of progressive education, creating a curriculum that led to accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Preparatory Schools in the academy's first.
[1] She died in April 20, 1976 at the Wesley Glenn Methodist Retirement Center in Columbus, Ohio.