Amy Surginer Northrop

After graduation, Northrop worked in beauty shops in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.^[3] She later moved back to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1935 to establish Amy's Beauty Shop. She hosted the first clinic for the South Carolina State Cosmetology Association in 1936.^[1] Two years later, in 1938, she became a charter member of the Columbia Citywide Cosmetology Association.^[3] As a charter member, she negotiated the affiliation of the Columbia Citywide Cosmetology Association with the National Beauty Culturist League in 1941.^[3] Northrop was also a state inspector for South Carolina, assessing beauty shops.^[6] Along with developing, in 1982, the citywide cosmetology association.^[7]

In 1943, Northrop fundraised for the Good Samaritan Waverly Hospital.^[3] She supported the meeting of the Southern Negro Youth Congress, featuring W.E.B. Du Bois, in 1946.^[3] She also founded the Gamma Epsilon Sorority in 1947, a chapter of the Alpha Chi Pi Omega Sorority.^[8] Of all of these contributions to her community, she also held a life membership in the NCNW, otherwise known as the National Council of Negro Women.^[4] She was married and developed a scholarship with her and her husband's name recognized at Allen University.^[2] Northrop was a constituent of Mount Pisgah AME Church^[1]

Northrop was a civil rights activist; in the 1950s-60s, she joined civil rights activist John H. McCray as a member of the South Carolina Progressive Democrats. In 1974, Amy Northrop was awarded the S.C. State Cosmetologist Association's Women of the Year.^[4] She was also inducted into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame and honored by the Columbia mayor, being awarded a key to the city.^[1] The honorable James Clyburn gave a tribute to Amy Surginer Northrop before the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005 for her 100th birthday. Amy Surginer Northrop died in 2010, aged 105.^[3] Family-related: after her passing in 2010, her niece and son are specified as alive.^[1]