| Summary: | Civil rights activist and professor Gloria Blackwell was born on March 11, 1927, in Little Rock, South Carolina. In 1943, Blackwell graduated from high school in Sumter, South Carolina. She received her B.S. degree in education from Claflin College in 1953, and obtained her M.A. degree in education from South Carolina State University in 1956. Blackwell was a recruiter for the NAACP, and participated in nonviolent demonstrations to desegregate public accommodations during this time. She won national attention and an invitation to speak before the National Teachers Union after being arrested, and subsequently fired, for her civil rights activism. From 1968 to 1970, Blackwell taught in and directed the African American studies program at Norfolk State University. She earned her Ph.D. degree in American Studies from Emory University in 1973, and then taught at Clark College until she retired in 1993. Blackwell passed away on December 7, 2010.
|
|---|
