Thelma Dale Perkins (October 23, 1915 – September 29, 2014) was an African-American activist.[1] Her maternal uncle was Frederick Douglass Patterson.[1] She was also a member of the CPUSA.[2]

She joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the Liberal Club (an African-American integration group), the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and the American Youth Congress.[1] As a member of the American Youth Congress she went to the White House for "chats" sponsored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to discuss the issues facing young people.[1] She graduated from Howard University in 1936.[1] She worked for E. Franklin Frasier on a National Youth Administration Fellowship. She later worked for the government but resigned, instead becoming National Secretary of the National Negro Congress.[1] In 1945 she attended the founding meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation, held in Paris.[3]

She was friends with Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda Robeson, and worked as managing editor for Paul's Freedom newspaper, and was involved in a campaign to get his passport restored.[4][1] She wrote a tribute to Paul Robeson in the book Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner (1998), by the editors of Freedomways.[5] She was a manager of community relations for CIBA-GEIGY Corporation, where she initiated and developed the "Exceptional Black Scientist" series, which was nationally recognized.[1]

She married Lawrence Rickman Perkins Jr., in 1957, and adopted two children, Lawrence and Patrice.[1]

Further reading

Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War, by Dayo Gore (2011) [about Thelma Dale Perkins and others]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Morris, Jennifer (October 24, 2014). "Thelma Dale Perkins: A Life of Civic Engagement". Anacostia Community Documentation Initiative. Cdi.anacostia.si.edu. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ Burden-Stelly, Charisse; Dean, Jodi (2022). Organize, fight, win: black communist women's political writing. London Brooklyn: Verso. p. 321. ISBN 9781839764974.
  3. ↑ Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney; Fabio Lanza (January 25, 2013). De-Centering Cold War History: Local and Global Change. Routledge. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-136-18407-9.
  4. ↑ Barbara Ransby (January 8, 2013). Eslanda. Yale University Press. pp. 8–. ISBN 978-0-300-18907-0.
  5. ↑ Ernest Kaiser; Freedomways (January 1, 1998). Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner. International Publishers Co. ISBN 978-0-7178-0724-6.
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