ZerNora Stewart Black
*ZerNona Stewart Black was born on this date in 1912. She was a Black educator and activist.
Born in Muskogee, Okla., she graduated from Emerson College in Boston; she taught communication, drama, speech, radio, and physical education at Langston College in Oklahoma. She was the cousin of Carter G. Woodson. She taught Communications, Drama, Speech, Radio, and Physical Education at Langston University in Oklahoma and St. Phillips College in San Antonio.
In 1943, she accepted a three-month transfer to the San Antonio YWCA-USO for Black Military, a group formed to help the morale of African American service members and their families. In 1946, she and civil rights leader Pastor Rev Claude Black married, and she continued teaching at St. Philip’s College. During the 1950s and 1960s, she served alongside her husband in civil rights activism. She also founded several senior citizen daycare centers, such as Health Incorporated, which earned her recognition from the nation's capital. She was a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and had experienced the death of both children, Stewart and Joyce, and three grandchildren.
ZerNora Black died peacefully in her sleep on January 24, 2005, two weeks short of her 59th wedding anniversary. She was interred in Meadow Lawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas. The city of San Antonio has created the Rev. Claude and ZerNona Black Scholarship Endowment Fund.
