Alcenya Crowley Explained

Alcenya Crowley
Birth Name:Alcenya McElwain
Birth Date:26 April 1926
Birth Place:St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
Death Date:September 12, 2010
Death Place:Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Nationality:American, Canadian
Other Names:Alcenya Crowley-Morrow
Occupation:Educator
Activist

Alcenya Crowley (April 3, 1926 – September 12, 2010), born Alcenya McElwain, was an American-born Canadian educator and activist.

Early life and education

Alcenya McElwain was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of William McElwain.[1] She was educated at the Minneapolis School of Business. She later studied marketing at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and earned a degree in political science from York University.

Career

Crowley worked in a law office, in an accountant's office, at the Metropolitan Children's Aid Society, and then as a secretary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She later taught business for the Toronto District School Board, retiring in 1991.[2]

Crowley joined the Canadian Negro Women's Association (CANEWA),[3] later the Congress of Black Women of Canada. She served as vice-president from 1957 to 1958 and as president from 1959 to 1960. She chaired CANEWA's first Calypso Carnival, drawing on the cultures of the organization's Caribbean-born members. She represented CANEWA at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.[4]

Personal life

She married a Canadian podiatrist, William Richard "Buddy" Crowley, in 1951, and moved to Toronto with him.

Crowley was widowed when her husband died in 1963;[5] she died in Credit Valley Hospital in 2010, at the age of 84.[6]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Alcenya McElwain from Ward 12 St. Paul in 1940 Census District 90-294. 2020-06-02. 1940 US Census.
  2. Book: Hill, Lawrence. Women of Vision: The Story of the Canadian Negro Women's Association, 1951–1976. 1996. 1895642183. 35–36. Dundurn .
  3. Book: Wane. Njoki Nathani. Back to the Drawing Board: African-Canadian Feminisms. Deliovsky. Katerina. Lawson. Erica. 2002. Canadian Scholars’ Press. 978-1-894549-17-2. 40. en.
  4. 2013. African Canadian Anti-Discrimination Activism and the Transnational Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1965. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 24. 3. 386–424.
  5. News: 1963-03-29. Obituaries. 5. The Windsor Star. 2020-06-02. Newspapers.com.
  6. News: Alcenya Crowley-Morrow . Toronto Star . September 15, 2010.