The name Holloway House is a tribute in Memoriam of Mrs. Rosa Lee Webster-Figgs, grandmother of Founder Rosemary Oglesby-Henry. 

 

Rosa Lee was a teen mother at 15. In 1942, she left her home in Columbia, Tennessee for Cincinnati to build a better life for herself and her baby. Because she was illiterate, she worked as a maid most of her life until she obtained her high school diploma at 34; she believed education was the one thing a person could not take away from her. Rosa Lee Webster-Figgs, known by the community as "Mother Figgs" or "Grandma Rose" raised seven children and a host of others in the three-bedroom house on Holloway Avenue in Evanston refusing government assistance. For more than 70 years she cared for her community, fought against injustice, and opened her home to children. Her legacy and name lives on through her grand-daughter Rose, whose organization does the same for teen parents. Holloway House is named in memoriam of this woman who inspired our core beliefs: truth, education, and integrity. Mrs. Rosa Lee Webster Figgs was called to Heaven on June 18, 2020.

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Rosa Lee Webster Legacy

Segregation of Coney Island | Expansion of St Stephen AME Church | Renovation of Evanston Community Center | March on Washington for Domestic Workers