Bernadine Coles Gines
A native of Virginia,
Bernadine Coles Gines earned a bachelors degree from Virginia State
College and an MBA from New York University in 1947. In 1954, she
became the first black woman to be certified as a CPA in the State of
New York. She and her sister, Ruth Coles Harris, were among the
very first black CPAs in the USA.
![Bernadine Gines](bernadine_gines.jpg)
READ WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT BERNADINE
COLES GINES:
Bernadine Gines Named Distinguished Alumnus
Bernadine Coles Gines featured in book about
African-American CPAs
Bernadine Coles Gines Highlighted in
Congressional Testimony
Bernadine Coles Gines Feted on Golden Anniversary as
CPA
Bernadine Coles Gines featured in Boston College
article
The Family of Bernadine Coles Gines
Bernadine Coles Gines' late husband was Richard Edward
Gines, born
in Kansas City, but who lived in New York City after World War
II. Bernadine Coles was born in Charlottesville,
Virginia, into a family
with a famous Virginia name and an interesting American genealogy. She
and her sister were daughters of Bernard and Ruth Coles. Their
paternal grandparents were Thornton and Annie Gamble Coles, both born
in about 1867 in the Charlottesville (then Albemarle County)
area. Thornton Coles was the son of John Coles, born a slave in
about 1845. John and his mother Agnes (born about 1815) served in
the household of John S. Coles in St. Anne's Parish, Albemarle County,
Virginia. John S. Coles was the grandson of Col. John Coles of
Virginia and the great-nephew of Col. Isaac Coles. He was the nephew
of Edward Coles. The Coles brothers, John and Isaac, were
the sons of John Coles, a wealthy and well-connected tobacco
planter. They were also that genealogical oddity, "double first
cousins, once removed" to Dolley Madison.
John S. Coles, who owned Bernadine's great-grandfather and
great-great-grandmother, was a major slaveowner in Albemarle County.
Ironically, Isaac Coles had voted to abolish slavery when he served in
Congress. Likewise, Edward Coles was a very early proponent of
abolition. He freed all of his slaves upon moving to Illinois, became
that state's second governor, and helped establish the abolitionist
roots of the Republican Party. Coles County, Illinois, is named
for Edward Coles.
The history of the Coles name in Virginia since the early nineteenth
century is the complex, sometimes tragic, sometimes poignant,
ocassionally absurd, history of the relationship between blacks and
whites in America.
But today, blacks and whites share the distinction of the Coles name in
Virginia and Illinois and around the country. Doctors,
professors, writers, social activists, business people, artists, and
accountants [our personal favorite] have written the modern history of
the Coles family name, now without regard to race or "previous
condition of servitude." The accomplished Coles family member one
hears of in 2005 is just as likely to be black as white.
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