Image: Christia Adair (13270285254)

Description: Biography: The daughter of Handy and Ada Crosby Daniels, Christia Adair was born in Texas; she graduated from Samuel Houston College and was trained as a teacher at Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical Institute. Three years of teaching, marriage to Elbert H. Adair, and several years of volunteer service for the Methodist Episcopal Church preceded the beginning of what was to be her long-term service to the NAACP. Spurred by observing President Harding ignore the group of Black children she was accompanying to shake hands with white children, Mrs. Adair began to work for racial equality. In 1925 she became a volunteer recording secretary for the newly organized Houston branch of the NAACP. When the organization's finances were unable to support a paid administrator, she donated her time and for 12 years worked without a steady salary. It was during these years that enormous strides were made in abolishing the practice of segregation in public facilities. Mrs. Adair was also instrumental in organizing the first interracial political group and the Harris County Democrats. One of the first Blacks to serve as precinct judge in the county as well as one of the first Blacks elected as state Democratic committeewoman (although she was never seated), Mrs. Adair was honored on the 54th anniversary of women's suffrage in August 1974: "Her life is a history of the struggle of women and minorities of this society." Mrs. Adair's other memberships included NACWC, Texas Federation of Church Women, and Zeta Phi Beta. Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America. Collection: Black Women Oral History Project Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp Questions? http://asklib.schlesinger.radcliffe.edu/index.php
Title: Christia Adair (13270285254)
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Author: Schlesinger Library, RIAS, Harvard University
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