Gloria Blackwell

Gloria Blackwell, also known as Gloria Rackley , was an AfricanAmerican civil rights activist and educator. She was at the center of the Civil Rights Movement in Orangeburg, South Carolina during the 1960s, attracting some national attention and a visit by Dr. Martin Luther King of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Her activities were widely covered by the local press.

Gloria Thomasina Blackwell was born in Little Rock in Dillon County, South Carolina, the second of three children and the only girl, to Harrison Benjamin Blackwell , a barber, and Lurline Olivia Thomas Blackwell , a teacher at the Little Rock Colored School and musician at the Methodist church. Her brothers were Harrison and LeGrand. Her father was a businessman and barber. Her mother was a school teacher, pianist, choir director, community volunteer and daughter of Methodist minister Rev. LeGrand Lee Thomas. Glorias maternal granduncle S. J. McDonald was active with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , established in 1909. Methodist minister. Blackwell attended Mather Academy in Camden, South Carolina and graduated high school in Sumter, South Carolina in 1943. At the age of 16, she enrolled at her mothers alma mater, Claflin College in Orangeburg.

Source: Wikipedia