Thelma Dale Perkins

Thelma Dale Perkins (1915-2014) was an African-American activist.[1] Her maternal uncle was Frederick Douglass Patterson.[1] She joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the Liberal Club, which "advocated for the integration of African Americans" into the greater society, the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and the American Youth Congress.[1] As a member of the American Youth Congress she went to the White House for "chats" sponsored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to discuss the issues facing young people.[1] She graduated from Howard University in 1936.[1] She worked for E. Franklin Frasier on a National Youth Administration Fellowship, and worked for the federal government, but as she recalled, "I resigned from the government rather than sign a loyalty oath and accepted the job of National Secretary of the National Negro Congress in New York City."[1] In 1945 she attended the founding meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation, held in Paris.[2]

She was friends with Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda Robeson, and worked as managing editor for Paul's Freedom newspaper, and was involved in a campaign to get his passport restored.[3][1] She wrote a tribute to Paul Robeson in the book Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner (1998), by the editors of Freedomways.[4] She was a manager of community relations for CIBA-GEIGY Corporation, where she initiated and developed the "Exceptional Black Scientist" series, which was nationally recognized.[1]

She married Lawrence Rickman Perkins Jr., in 1957, and adopted two babies, Lawrence Dale Perkins and Patrice Dale Perkins.[1]

In the Dale/Patterson Family papers in the Anacostia Community Museum Archives there is a small collection related to her, donated by her niece Dianne Dale.[1]

Further reading

Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War, by Dayo Gore (2011) [about Thelma Dale Perkins and others]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Thelma Dale Perkins: A Life of Civic Engagement @ Anacostia Community Documentation Initiative". Cdi.anacostia.si.edu. Retrieved 2015-11-09.
  2. ↑ Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney; Fabio Lanza (25 January 2013). De-Centering Cold War History: Local and Global Change. Routledge. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-136-18407-9.
  3. ↑ Barbara Ransby (8 January 2013). Eslanda. Yale University Press. pp. 8–. ISBN 978-0-300-18907-0.
  4. ↑ Ernest Kaiser; Freedomways (1 January 1998). Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. International Publishers Co. ISBN 978-0-7178-0724-6.
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