Growing up, she had aspirations to become a schoolteacher but her father thought the only job viable for her was domestic work.
On November 5, 1902, she married Richard Stedman Fleming, who was also groundbreaking in his own right as the first African-American dentist in Connecticut.
In her civic work, she organized the New Haven's Women’s Civic League (1929) and founded the Phillis Wheatley Home for Girls (1936), where she promoted and developed a small shelter for young black women who came to New Haven in search for work.
She was cited before Congress in 1955 for her many community contributions, and that same year she also received the Sojourner Truth Scroll, an annual award sponsored by the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club.
Clouds and Sunshine is a collection of poetry that sheds light on Fleming’s political views.