Thyra Edwards
Born December 25, 1897
Happy Birthday, Thyra! Edwards would be 123 today(!), so I am happy to take this opportunity to share a bit more about her.
I am currently writing an article about her time in Chicago in the 1930s, and how, through labor organizing and alliances with American Communists, she developed a unique sense of Black Radicalism (on that she took with her on her amazing international journeys!). To share a little bit about her, she is often described as a social worker, but that only skims the surface of her work. In her lifetime (1897-1953), Edwards:
- Play ground director, Gary, Indiana Public Schools (1919)
- Founder, Lake County Children’s Home (1927)
- Supervising Caseworker, Illinois Emergency Relief Commission (1931-1933)
- Student, Brookwood Labor College (1933) under A.J. Muste
- Student, International People’s College (1933-24) Denmark
- Member, Scottsboro Action Committee (1933)
- Labor Organizer, International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (1935)
- Member, Department of Labor, under Division of Negro Labor (1936)
- Member, National Negro Congress (1936)
- International traveler to Spain, Denmark, Mexico, USSR, and more
- Journalist for The Associate Negro Press, Opportunity, the Working Woman, and more
For more, see the entry at Black Past and I highly recommend the biography by Gregg Andrews or . Below is a gallery of a few of my research finds. Feel free to contact me for further archival information.
Melissa Ford, Phd 