Helen Grey Edmonds (1911-1995)

September 24, 2010 
/ Contributed By: Leslie Hurt

Helen Edmonds|

Helen Edmonds

Helen Grey Edmonds Papers

Scholar and historian Helen Grey Edmonds was the first African American woman to earn a doctoral degree from Ohio State University and the first Black woman to second the nomination for a candidate for President of the United States. Edmonds was born December 3, 1911 in Lawrenceville, Virginia.ย  Her father, John Edmonds, was a successful contractor who employed a workforce of twenty-two men.ย  Her mother, Ann Williams Edmonds, was a homemaker who stressed the importance of education to her children. Edmonds attended Saint Paulโ€™s High School in Lawrenceville and received her bachelorโ€™s degree in history from Morgan State College in 1933.

She then taught history, Latin, and Greek at the Virginia Theological Seminary for one year before becoming Dean of Women at Saint Paulโ€™s College. In 1938, Edmonds received her masterโ€™s in history from Ohio State University, and in 1946, she received her doctorate from that institution. Edmond’s dissertation was published in 1951 as her first book, The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina, 1894-1901. The work remained for a number of years the best study of Blacks, the Republican Party, and North Carolina politics.ย  Edmonds also published numerous articles in scholarly journals on politics in the South. In 1971, her second book, Black Faces in High Places, appeared.

In 1941, Edmonds joined the faculty of North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University) where she remained until her retirement in 1977.ย  During her tenure at NCCU, Edmonds taught U.S. and European diplomatic history, served as chair of the department of history, Dean of the Graduate School, and University Distinguished Professor. After her retirement from the teaching faculty in 1977, she became a member of the Board of Trustees.

In 1954 Edmonds was appointed by the U.S. Department of State as a Leader-Specialist in International Education Exchange. Through this post, she helped develop educational exchanges for U.S. faculty and students in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and France.ย  She also served as a visiting instructor in numerous institutions in the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, including Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT), the Free University of Berlin, the University of Stockholm, Ohio State University, and the University of Liberia.

Edmonds, an active Republican, seconded the nomination of President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco in 1956.ย  During the second term of the Eisenhower Administration she traveled throughout Africa promoting American ideals and values in colonies that were soon-to-be independent nations.ย  In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Edmonds as an alternate delegate to the United Nations General Assembly, where she chaired the Human Rights Committee.

Edmonds also held important leadership roles in civic organizations such as the United Negro College Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense Fund, the United Research and Development Corporation, the National Council of Negro Women, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.ย  She was the fifth president of the African American women’s service organization, the Links.

In 1986, Edmonds was named a Distinguished Woman of North Carolina. Three years later, the North Carolina Central University social science and history building was renamed in her honor. Dr. Helen Grey Edmonds died in Durham, North Carolina, on May 9, 1995, at the age of 83.

About the Author

Author Profile

Leslie Hurt received his Associate degree in Human Services from Vance- Granville Community College in 2004. He received his BA in Sociology from North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in 2008. He is completing his Masterโ€™s in Sociology at NCCU where he is a graduate assistant. His focus areas of study are Race and Ethnic studies, African American History and Social Movements. He is a member of Alpha Kappa Delta International Sociology honor society Leslie completed research for his Masterโ€™s thesis on the life and works of renowned sociologist, Dr. Joseph Himes, in 2011 and is currently on the adjunct faculty at North Carolina Central University. One of his major goals is to obtain his PhD and shed light on the vast contributions African Americans have made to the field of Sociology.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Hurt, L. (2010, September 24). Helen Grey Edmonds (1911-1995). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/edmonds-helen-grey-1911-1995/

Source of the Author's Information:

Dorothy C. Salem, ed., African American Women: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume 2 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993); Henry Louis Gates and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, African American National Biography, Volume 3 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008); Jessie Carney Smith, Notable Black American Women (Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1992).

Further Reading