Janie Porter Barrett was an influential social reformer and educator. She founded the Locust Street Settlement House in Hampton, Virginia, which provided educational and social services to African American communities. In the mid-1920s the Russell Sage Foundation identified it as one of the five best such schools in the country. Barrett’s work focused on empowering individuals and families through education and community development. In 1950, two years after her death, the Virginia General Assembly renamed the school she had founded the Janie Porter Barrett School for Girls.
