Ethel Ray Nance facts for kids

Ethel Ray from Duluth Central High School's yearbook, the Zenith

Ethel Ray Nance was an African-American civil rights activist.

Biography

Ethel Ray was born on April 13, 1899, in Duluth, Minnesota, to a Swedish mother and an African-American father. Her father was the president of the Duluth chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Early on, Nance worked for the Minnesota State Relief Commission. In 1921, at the age of 22, she met W. E. B. Du Bois. Nance gained national recognition in 1923 for breaking the secretarial color barrier in the Minnesota State Legislature.

In Kansas City, Nance was executive secretary for the local chapter of the Urban League. She moved to New York in 1924 and became Charles S. Johnson's secretary. She assisted him with research at Opportunity magazine.

Nance died on July 11, 1992, in San Francisco, California.