Emma Chambers Maitland

Jane Chambers was born near Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of Wyatt Chambers and Cora Chambers. Her parents were sharecroppers, and she had seven brothers.^[1][2] She was educated at a convent school at Rock Castle, Virginia, and qualified as a teacher.^[3] She changed her first name when she moved to Washington, D.C. as a young woman.^[4]

Chambers was a teacher as a young woman in Virginia. As a widow with a young daughter to support, Maitland moved to Paris.^[5] She danced at the Moulin Rouge,^[6] modeled for artists,^[7] and did a boxing act with another American performer, Aurelia Wheedlin (or Wheeldin).^[8] She became serious about boxing, trained with American boxer Jack Taylor, and toured with Wheedlin in Europe,^[9][10] billed as the world's lightweight female boxing champion.^[4][11] She also boxed in Canada,^[12] Cuba and Mexico.^[13]

Maitland moved back to the United States in 1926,^[14] lived in New York City,^[2] and continued performing as a "boxeuse".^[15] She appeared (often with Wheedlin) in clubs,^[16] in vaudeville^[17] and on the New York stage in black revues,^[18] including Messin' Around (1929),^[19][20] Change Your Luck (1930),^[21][22] and Fast and Furious (1931).^[23] She worked as a bodyguard^[24][25] and taught dance and gymnastics. In her later years she moved to Martha's Vineyard.^[4]

Emma Maitland married a Howard University medical student, Clarence Maitland. They had a daughter together in 1917.^[26] Clarence Maitland died from tuberculosis within a year of their wedding. She died in early 1975, aged 82.^[4][27]

Maitland donated her papers and souvenirs to the Schomburg Collection at the New York Public Library, in 1943.^[7] In 2015, Maitland's former home in Oak Bluffs became a stop on the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard.^[4][28] In 2020, she was the subject of an exhibit at the Martha's Vineyard Museum.^[29][30]