ZerNona Stewart Black (1906–2005) was the wife of civil rights leader, the Rev. Claude Black. She was an instructor at

Langston University Langston University (LU) is a public land-grant historically black university in Langston, Oklahoma. It is the only historically black college in the state. Though located in a rural setting east of Guthrie, Langston also serves an urban missio ...

in Oklahoma and at St. Philip's College in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

. In 1943, she accepted a three-month transfer to the San Antonio

YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...

-USO for Black Military, a group formed to help morale for African American service members and their families. During the 1950s and 1960s, Black served alongside her husband in the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

. Black had also founded several senior citizen daycare centers such as Health Incorporated, which earned her recognition from the nation's capital.

Family

In 1946, ZerNona Stewart married Claude Black; they had two children, six grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren.

Death

In January 2005, Black died peacefully in her sleep, aged 98, two weeks short of her 59th wedding anniversary. She is interred in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

Legacy

The city of San Antonio has created The Rev. Claude and ZerNona Black Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Trivia

* Per the Woodson Family Tree, she was a descendant of President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

and his slave

Sally Hemings Sarah "Sally" Hemings ( 1773 – 1835) was an enslaved woman with one-quarter African ancestry owned by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles. Hemings's mother Elizabet ...

. * She was a member of

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...

, a noted African-American women's sorority.

External links

Claude & ZerNona Black FoundationTexas House of Rep Resolution
1906 births 2005 deaths 20th-century African-American academics 20th-century American academics Langston University faculty Baptists from Texas People from Muskogee, Oklahoma People from San Antonio Academics from Oklahoma Academics from Texas Baptists from Oklahoma 20th-century Baptists 21st-century African-American academics 21st-century American academics {{Oklahoma-university-stub