People, Locations, Episodes

Jeanne Noble, Educator, and Author born

Dr. Jeanne Noble

This date celebrates the birth of Dr. Jeanne L. Noble, a Black educator and writer, in 1926.

Born in Albany, GA, she graduated from Howard University and received master’s and doctorate degrees from Columbia University in Guidance and Developmental Psychology. She served as the twelfth National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and was a founding chairperson of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority’s National Commission on Arts and Letters. She was the first Black woman to serve on the National Board of the Girl Scouts USA and the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in The Services (DACOWITS).

A resident of New York City, she was the first Black woman to move from assistant to full professor at the New York University School of Education. An innovator and visionary, Noble completed the first primary research on Black women in college (the 1950s) and published the book, "The Negro Woman’s College Education." In the 1970s, her book, "Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of My Black Sisters," was published. She was appointed to many federal national commissions by United States Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford.

Dr. Noble was a leader of the Women’s Job Corps Program and served on the board of directors of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Dr. Jeanne Noble died in November 2002 at New York University Hospital.

To be a Writer