Thelma Dale Perkins Explained

Thelma Dale Perkins (October 23, 1915 – September 29, 2014) was an African-American activist.[1] Her maternal uncle was Frederick Douglass Patterson.[1] She was also a member of the CPUSA.[2]

She joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the Liberal Club (an African-American integration group), 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. She later worked for the government but resigned, instead becoming National Secretary of the National Negro Congress.[1] In 1945 she attended the founding meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation, held in Paris.[3]

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.[4] [1] She wrote a tribute to Paul Robeson in the book Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner (1998), by the editors of Freedomways.[5] 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 children, Lawrence and Patrice.[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]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Thelma Dale Perkins: A Life of Civic Engagement . Anacostia Community Documentation Initiative . Cdi.anacostia.si.edu . Jennifer. Morris. October 24, 2014. November 9, 2015.
  2. Book: Burden-Stelly . Charisse . Dean . Jodi . Organize, fight, win: black communist women's political writing . 2022 . Verso . London Brooklyn . 9781839764974 . 321.
  3. Book: Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney. Fabio Lanza. De-Centering Cold War History: Local and Global Change. January 25, 2013. Routledge. 978-1-136-18407-9. 52–.
  4. Book: Barbara Ransby. Eslanda. January 8, 2013. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-18907-0. 8–.
  5. Book: Ernest Kaiser. Freedomways. Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. registration. January 1, 1998. International Publishers Co. 978-0-7178-0724-6.