Gloria Blackwell facts for kids

Gloria Blackwell, also known as Gloria Rackley (born March 11, 1927 – died December 7, 2010), was an important African-American civil rights activist and teacher. She played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement in Orangeburg, South Carolina, during the 1960s. Her actions even caught national attention, leading Dr. Martin Luther King to visit the city. Local newspapers often wrote about her activities, sometimes criticizing them.

Gloria Blackwell was arrested for sitting in a "whites only" area of a hospital. She sued the hospital and won, which helped end segregation there. Later, the city's white school board fired her as a teacher. She sued them too and won her job back in 1962. She left South Carolina in the 1960s and taught at colleges and universities. She earned a doctorate degree in 1973 and taught at Clark Atlanta University for 20 years.

Early Life and Education

Gloria Thomasina Blackwell was born in Little Rock, in Dillon County, South Carolina. She was the second of three children and the only girl. Her father, Harrison Benjamin Blackwell, was a barber. Her mother, Lurline Olivia Thomas Blackwell, was a teacher and musician.

Gloria's mother taught at the Little Rock Colored School and played music at the Methodist church. Her maternal granduncle, S. J. McDonald, was active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). This organization was started in 1909 to fight for equal rights.

Blackwell attended Mather Academy and finished high school in Sumter, South Carolina, in 1943. When she was 16, she went to Claflin College in Orangeburg, her mother's old school.

Family and Career

In 1944, Gloria left college to marry James "Jimmy" Becknell. They had three daughters. For a while, they lived in Detroit, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois. Many African Americans moved to these cities from the South during the Great Migration. Her marriage to James Becknell later ended. She returned to Orangeburg with her two young daughters to be near her family.

Blackwell finished her degree at Claflin College, earning a Bachelor of Science in 1953. She later married Larney G. (Jack) Rackley, a professor at South Carolina State University. He adopted her daughters, Jamelle and Lurma. Blackwell continued her studies, earning a Master of Arts degree in education from South Carolina State University. In 1973, she earned a doctorate in American studies from Emory University in Atlanta.

Gloria Blackwell became an elementary school teacher in Orangeburg. The public schools in the city were segregated, meaning Black and white students attended separate schools. In the 1960s, white leaders often used economic pressure to stop civil rights activities. They fired Blackwell from her teaching job in 1964. She fought this decision in court and won her job back. However, she and her husband decided to leave Orangeburg.

Blackwell moved to Virginia to teach English at Norfolk State College, which is now Norfolk State University. From 1968 to 1970, she led African-American studies at American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts. After getting her doctorate, Blackwell started teaching at Clark Atlanta University in 1973. She taught there until she retired in 1993.

Fighting for Civil Rights

Blackwell became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. In Orangeburg, much of the activism started at the Trinity United Methodist Church. Protesters always prayed before going to a demonstration. Blackwell had been active in the Methodist church since she was young.

She volunteered and recruited people for the NAACP. She became a key leader in what was called the "Orangeburg Freedom Movement." She also became an officer in the local NAACP chapter.

Hospital Segregation Case

In October 1961, Blackwell was arrested at Orangeburg hospital. She had taken her daughter Jamelle to the emergency room for an injured finger. She was told to go to the "colored" waiting area, which was just a space next to a soda machine with some crates. Blackwell returned to the "whites only" waiting area and was arrested.

Her lawyer, Matthew J. Perry, strongly defended her in court. Blackwell and her daughter filed a civil lawsuit, Rackley v. Tri-County Hospital. They argued that having separate facilities violated their constitutional rights. Blackwell won her case, and the hospital was integrated. This happened at a time when many public places in the state were still segregated. The Orangeburg case gained national attention, and Dr. Martin Luther King visited the city because of it.

School Desegregation Efforts

The Orangeburg County NAACP chapter focused on integrating public schools. Leaders like Roy Wilkins and Thurgood Marshall from the national NAACP often visited. Thurgood Marshall had won the important desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), before the United States Supreme Court.

Blackwell, known then as Rackley, began to lead peaceful protests to desegregate schools, hospitals, and other public places. Her daughters often joined her at these protests. Once, she and her daughter Lurma were arrested for using the "whites only" restroom at the county courthouse.

Because Blackwell was a Black woman acting so publicly, the white newspapers often criticized her. They called her "dangerously wild." Some Black people even avoided her. This was because the white community tried to stop activism by hurting people financially. They would fire activists, evict them from homes, or stop them from getting loans. Blackwell's parents were worried, especially about her daughters joining the protests.

Fighting Back Against Retaliation

The white superintendent of schools fired Blackwell from her job as a third-grade teacher. Her husband's teaching contract at South Carolina State University was also not renewed. In response, Black families boycotted Orangeburg's seven Black schools. There were protests, including one where 57 minors marched and were arrested.

In December 1963, Blackwell was invited to speak at a civil rights rally in New York City. She spoke alongside the famous author James Baldwin. In her dismissal letter, the superintendent wrote that Blackwell was "rabid in her zeal for social change and was unfit to be a teacher." Blackwell filed a lawsuit against the school district for her firing and won her job back.

After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, Blackwell felt she could leave Orangeburg. This law made segregation illegal. She moved to Norfolk, Virginia, to work at Norfolk State University. Later, she moved to Atlanta, earned her doctorate, and taught at Clark Atlanta University.

Later Life and Legacy

Gloria Blackwell was known for her beauty and her activism. She had a scar on her face from a car accident that happened when she was younger. People often asked why she didn't get plastic surgery to remove it. She would say that after losing her child in that accident, a scar was not important to her.

Blackwell used her maiden name, Blackwell, as her professional name later in life to avoid confusion.

In retirement, Blackwell continued to speak to groups about her experiences in the civil rights movement. She encouraged young people to work for social justice. While living in Atlanta, she also helped raise money to restore Martin Luther King Jr.'s childhood home. This home is now part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.

Honors

When Gloria Blackwell passed away in 2010, Congressman James Clyburn called her "fearless." He said, "She was just a tremendous spirit." Richard Reid, president of the Orangeburg Historical and Genealogical Society, said that Gloria Rackley's actions put her in the same class as Rosa Parks and South Carolina's own Septima Clark and Modjeska Simkins. He added that in Orangeburg, her name was "pretty much a 'household name.'"

Not only did [Blackwell] put her body on the line at civil rights demonstrations, but she also served as a role model for other women who were too frightened to challenge the traditional role that the community had set aside for female behavior. She encouraged the youth because she was a teacher standing up for her rights. She was jailed, maligned, ostracized, and fired from gainful employment because of her activities on behalf of others.

—Barbara A. Woods, "Working in the Shadows: Southern Women and Civil Rights", in Southern Women at the Millennium: A Historical Perspective (2003)

In January 2011, after her death, Blackwell was honored in Dillon County, where she was born. She received a Lifetime Community Service Award on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

See also

• Orangeburg massacre