Sarah Collins Fernandis

Sarah A. Collins Fernandis (March 8, 1863 – July 11, 1951) was an American social worker, writer, and community leader, based in Baltimore, Maryland.

She organized settlement houses in Washington, D.C., and Rhode Island, and worked for improved living conditions and healthcare for Black city residents.

[4] Collins taught school for about twenty years, in Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida, sometimes under the auspices of the Women's Home Missionary Society of Boston.

She retired from the city health department in 1933, but opened a National Youth Administration office in 1936, to help place homeless young women in employment and housing.

[2] She also lectured for the National League of Women Voters, lobbied for compulsory school attendance laws and for quality low-income housing.

Front page of sheet music for "Put Unity in Community" (1919), by Sarah Collins Fernandis and Frank Casper
"Put Unity in Community" (1919), a rally song written by Sarah Collins Fernandis, music by Frank Casper, in the collection of the Library of Congress .