Helen Edmonds
*Helen Gray Edmonds was born on this date in 1911. She was a Black educator and political activist.
From Lawrenceville, Va., she was the daughter of John Edward Edmonds and Ann Williams. She attended St. Paul’s High School and St. Paul’s College. Edmonds graduated from Morgan State University in 1933. After this, she earned a master’s degree from Ohio State University in 1938.
From 1941-1977, she was a North Carolina Central University professor. During this time, she wrote several books. Some include African American Faces in High Places, 1971, and The Negro in Fusion Politics in North Carolina 1894-1901, 1973. Edmonds was politically active in the Republican Party, an alternative delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.
She was also a special emissary for President Eisenhower in Liberia. She served on the National Advisory Council of the Peace Corps and was a Defense Advisory Council on Women in the Armed Services member. Edmonds died at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, on May 9, 1995.
