Educator. She was a teacher for 30 years, before becoming the first African American woman to head the Bureau of North Carolina Teachers Association. During the presidential Administration of Richard M. Nixon, she was the highest ranking black woman, heading the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor and served as a delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in 1970. A champion on the rights of minority women, she also fought for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and served as assistant superintendent for the Department of Public Instruction before retiring in 1982. (bio by: John “J-Cat” Griffith) Cause of death: Heart attack