Arenia Mallory

rdf:langString Arenia Mallory

rdf:langString Arenia Mallory

rdf:langString Arenia Mallory

rdf:langString Jacksonville, Illinois, U.S.

rdf:langString A young Black woman, hair side-parted and braided over the crown

rdf:langString Arenia Mallory, from the cover of The Crisis

rdf:langString May 1977

rdf:langString Educator, activist

rdf:langString Arenia Conelia Mallory (December 28, 1904 – May 1977) was an American educator based in Lexington, Mississippi. She was recognized nationally as a political activist working for African-American education and civil rights. She gained a national reputation as president of Saints Industrial and Literary School, which she developed over 50 years from a few students in 1926 to a private K-12 academic school and junior college on 350 acres. It was affiliated with the Pentecostal Church of God in Christ, in which Mallory had been active since about age 18. Mallory contributed to emerging national networks of black women. She drew from them and white philanthropists to raise money for the school. Saints was instrumental in black education in Mississippi; for many years, it was the only accredited high school for blacks in its area. It attracted students from nearly every state and from African nations due to its strong academic reputation; over the decades, Mallory educated an estimated 20,000 students through Saints. In addition, Mallory became a national leader in the COGIC Women's Department. From the 1940s, she helped to create wider civic engagement of church women; they worked for a "sanctified world". Through the National Council of Negro Women, of which Mallory was a charter member beginning in 1935 and vice-president for many years, she worked for education and civil rights for African Americans. She engaged with national leaders such as Mary McLeod Bethune in the NCNW to raise funds to support her school in Mississippi and to draw women leaders into greater public life. In 1963, she was appointed to serve in President John F. Kennedy's administration. Through Saints and her civic activities, Mallory promoted her advocacy for the mostly black and poor sharecroppers in the county and for the Civil Rights Movement. In 1968, she was the first woman and person of color to be elected to the Holmes County Board of Education. In 1974 she was elected to a second term.