Gloria Blackwell
| Dr. Gloria Blackwell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Gloria Thomasina Blackwell |
| Other names | Gloria Rackley |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | B.S. 1953, M.A., Ph.D 1973 |
| Alma mater |
Claflin College S.C. State University Emory University |
| Occupation | Educator |
| Years active | 1950s–1993 |
| Organization | NAACP |
| Known for | Civil rights activism |
| Movement | Orangeburg Freedom Movement |
| Children | Lurma Rackley, Jamelle Rackley |
Gloria Blackwell, also known as Gloria Rackley (March 11, 1927 – December 7, 2010), was an African-American civil rights activist and educator. She was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Orangeburg, South Carolina during the 1960s, attracting some national attention and a visit by Dr. Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Her activities were widely covered (and criticized) by the local press.
Arrested for sitting in the "whites only" area of the regional hospital when her daughter needed emergency treatment, Blackwell sued and won, ending its segregation. After being fired by the city's white school board in economic retaliation, she sued the board and won in 1962. She left the state in the 1960s, teaching at colleges and universities. She earned a doctorate at Emory University in 1973, and taught at Clark Atlanta University for 20 years.
Gloria Thomasina Blackwell was born in Little Rock in Dillon County, South Carolina, the second of three children and the only girl, to Harrison Benjamin Blackwell (born 1889), a barber, and Lurline Olivia Thomas Blackwell (born 1895), a teacher at the Little Rock Colored School and musician at the Methodist church. Her brothers were Harrison and LeGrand. Her father was a businessman and barber. Her mother was a school teacher, pianist, choir director, community volunteer and daughter of Methodist minister Rev. LeGrand Lee Thomas. Gloria's maternal granduncle S. J. McDonald was active with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), established in 1909. Methodist minister. Blackwell attended Mather Academy in Camden, South Carolina and graduated high school in Sumter, South Carolina in 1943. At the age of 16, she enrolled at her mother's alma mater, Claflin College in Orangeburg.
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