Mary Zoner Hurston Barksdale Lawes (November 24, 1920 - October 9, 1992 ) was a prominent African-American nurse and businesswoman. She was the owner and administrator, for twenty-seven years, of the Hurstdale Rest Home, the only black-owned rest home in western

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

Life and career

Lawes was born in 1920 to John Paul Hurston and Lula Mae Taylor, in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. She attended

Spelman College Spelman College is a private, historically black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium in Atlanta. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman re ...

and migrated to the

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

area in the 1940s. In 1952, she graduated from a Springfield area nursing school and became a licensed L.P.N. She was one of the first Black nurses to work for the Holyoke visiting nurses program and later

Springfield Hospital Springfield University Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Tooting, South London and also the headquarters of the South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust. History The hospital opened as the Surrey County Pauper Lunatic Asy ...

Community service

Barksdale was a past President of the Jack and Jill Club of America, a national black mothers' organization. She was on the Board of Directors for both the Action for Equality and Achiever's Opportunity Corporations. She also received a certificate of excellence from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for her work in

gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". The fie ...

. She, along with her late husband, Abraham Barksdale, was instrumental in the founding of the D. Edward Wells Federal Credit Union.

Civil rights

Her husband's Abraham Barksdale's crowning achievement was the desegregation of Springfield Public Schools. In ''Barksdale v. Springfield School Committee,'' a de facto segregation lawsuit, Abraham Barksdale and Mary Barksdale challenged the concept of racial isolation because the school a child attended was based on the neighborhood in which you lived. Barksdale won and Springfield Public Schools were desegregated in 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barksdale, Mary American civil rights activists Women civil rights activists 1920 births 1992 deaths People from Atlanta Businesspeople from Springfield, Massachusetts Spelman College alumni African-American nurses American nurses American women nurses African-American businesspeople African-American women in business