Ethel Ray Nance was an African-American civil rights activist.

Early life

Ethel Ray was born on April 13, 1899, in

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, to a Swedish mother and an African-American father. The Rays had four children: two sons and two daughters. Her father, William Henry Ray, was the president of the Duluth chapter of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. ...

(NAACP). He formed the Duluth branch in June 1920 after a white mob

lynched Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...

three Black men four blocks from the Ray family home. Duluth had a small African-American population, leading to a lonely childhood for Nance. She graduated from Central High School in 1917.''Ethel Ray Nance Papers''. Minnesota Historical Society. Accession number: 11,669; 12,606. Processed by Richard Apri, December 1991. Catalog ID number: 990017294630104294

/ref> In school, she trained to be a stenographer.

Career

From 1919 to 1922, Nance worked as a stenographer for the Minnesota State Relief Commission, an organization that helped the victims of a series of 1918 fires in and around Duluth. In 1921, at the age of 22, she met

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

when he spoke at a NAACP meeting in Duluth. This sparked a lifelong friendship between the two, and Nance would work for Du Bois later in her life.Nance, Ethel and Herndon, James. Interview. Conducted by Charles F. Hampton. February-June 1986. For SOC 030 Oral History Methods and Techniques, Prof. Elaine Dorfman. University of California Berkeley, California. https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/rohoia/ucb/text/sanfranafricanhist00nancrich.pdf Nance gained national recognition in 1923 for breaking the secretarial

color barrier Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crime against humanity under the Statute of the Internati ...

in the

Minnesota State Legislature The Minnesota Legislature is the bicameral legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota consisting of two houses: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Senators are elected from 67 single-member districts. In order to account for decennia ...

. In 1924, Nance became the executive secretary for the Kansas City Urban League. Here, she met Charles S. Johnson, who offered her a position with the League's publication, ''

Opportunity Opportunity may refer to: Places * Opportunity, Montana, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Nebraska, an unincorporated community, United States * Opportunity, Washington, a former census-designated place, United States * 3 ...

''. Nance moved to New York in 1924 and assisted Johnson with writing, researching, and editing for the magazine. When her mother got sick, Nance returned to Minnesota, where she would become the associate head resident at the Phyllis Wheatley House from 1926 until 1928. From 1928 to 1931, Nance worked with the Women's Bureau at the

Minneapolis Police Department The Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) is the primary law enforcement agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is also the largest police department in Minnesota. Formed in 1867, it is the second-oldest police department in Minnesot ...

. Nance was one of the first African-America policewomen in Minnesota. In 1945, Nance moved to San Francisco with her family and became a secretary for her friend, Du Bois. While living on the west coast, she also worked for the regional office of the NAACP, the

War Department War Department may refer to: * War Department (United Kingdom) * United States Department of War (1789–1947) See also * War Office, a former department of the British Government * Ministry of defence * Ministry of War * Ministry of Defence * Dep ...

, the

U.S. District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

(as a deputy clerk), the

Federal Public Housing Authority The United States Housing Authority, or USHA, was a Alphabet agencies, federal agency created during 1937 within the United States Department of the Interior by the Housing Act of 1937 as part of the New Deal. It was designed to lend money to th ...

, and the

San Francisco Board of Education The San Francisco Board of Education is the school board for the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco. It is composed of seven Commissioners, elected by voters across the city to serve 4-year terms. It is subject to local, state, and f ...

. While working for the Board of Education, Nance researched Black history and became involved with the African-American Historical Society. In 1978, Nance became the oldest person to earn a B.A. degree from the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a private Jesuit university in San Francisco, California. The university's main campus is located on a setting between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. The main campus is nicknamed "The Hil ...

at the time. Throughout her life, Nance was also involved in several organizations, such as the Minnesota Negro Council and the San Francisco African-American Historical Society, and wrote for many publications. With the African-American Historical Society, Nance contributed to Negro History Week, which would later become

Black History Month Black History Month is an annual observance originating in the United States, where it is also known as African-American History Month. It has received official recognition from governments in the United States and Canada, and more recently ...

Personal life

While in New York working for ''Opportunity'', Nance lived in an apartment with

Regina M. Anderson Regina M. Anderson (May 21, 1901 – February 5, 1993) was an American playwright and librarian. She was of Native American, Jewish, East Indian, Swedish, and other European ancestry (including one grandparent who was a Confederate general); one ...

and Louella Tucker. Called the "Harlem West Side Literary Salon," the apartment was frequented by prominent figures of the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...

, including W. E. B. Du Bois and

Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on Hoodoo (spirituality), hoodoo. The most ...

. Ethel Ray married LeRoy A. H. Williams in 1929. They had two children, Thatcher and Glenn Ray, and separated in 1943. She married Clarence A. Nance in 1944, and her two children took Nance's last name. Nance died on July 11, 1992, in San Francisco, California.

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading