NAACP leader Geraldine Washington dies
Education activist led L.A. Chapter for 14 years
Funeral services will be held Saturday for Geraldine R. Washington, a prominent Los Angeles civil rights leader who died Jan. 5 of natural causes at the age of 81, NAACP spokeswoman Joy Atkinson said. She had been ill for several years and suffered from a form of dementia, the spokewoman said.
Washington, who was president of the Los Angeles branch of the NAACP for 14 years beginning in the mid-1990s, was known for her activism on education.
During her tenure as president, she worked to reverse declining enrollment of Blacks in the University of California system and pushed for local job training programs, Atkinson said.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Washington “an outstanding educator and tireless advocate of equal opportunity for all students.
“Her legacy of service to Los Angeles, its students and the community will live on through the many lives she touched,” Villaraigosa said.
“Geraldine Washington distinguished herself in a variety of ways,” noted Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “Most memorable to me was her leadership with NAACP. She was active in supporting the voter registration drives throughout the ’90s, well into the 2000’s and beyond. She stood up for justice and education and law enforcement and was a very clear example of the leadership that women bring to bear in the civil and human rights movement. My memories of her are filled with respect, fondness and her great sense of humor.”
“Dr. Washington was a passionate and effective leader of the Los Angeles NAACP. She devoted her life to making sure that all students can have the same access to a quality education. Her contributions to her community, our children, and our country are truly immeasurable,” said NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous.
NAACP National Board Chairman Roslyn M. Brock added: “Dr. Washington was instrumental in shaping so many young lives, both in the classroom and as policy advocate on the NAACP Education Committee. Her dedication to her community and to her students was unparalleled.
She will be missed.”
Washington, was the sixth of seven children born to Nathan and Havannah Anderson Robinson, in Little Rock, Ark. A product of public schools, she went on to earn master’s and doctorate degrees in education and then worked for 40 years in public school systems.
One of her key recent accomplishments was her work as part of the Alliance for Equal Opportunity in Education to ensure that UCLA as a land-grant college enrolled a student population reflective of the state’s demographics.
During her tenure heading the L.A. NAACP, Washington reactivated the chapter’s ACT-SO program for students and created a community skills center.
In addition to her work with the local chapter, Washington was active on the national NAACP education committee and spent years as the national coordinator for Women covering Region I.
This includes nine Western states as well as Japan, Germany and Korea.
Funeral services are scheduled for 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Second Baptist Church, 2412 Griffith Ave., Los Angeles. Viewing will be held Friday from 2-8 p.m. at Angelus Funeral Home, 3875 S. Crenshaw Blvd., Los Angeles.
Washington is survived by her husband of 57 years, Willie Washington Jr.; her son Stanley and his wife Karen; her brother Richard Tyrone Robinson, his wife Sylvia of Los Angeles; her sister Dorothy Steward of Chicago; and grandchildren Christian and Chasen.
In lieu of flowers, Washington’s family requests that a donation be made to the Dr. Geraldine R. Washington Youth Scholarship Fund. Make checks payable to WIN for Dr. Geraldine R. Washington Youth Scholarship Fund and mail to: Mary Anne Smith, WIN President, Women In NAACP, P.O. Box 56408, Los Angeles, CA 90056.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Funeral services will be held Saturday for Geraldine Washington, a prominent Los Angeles civil rights leader whose death was confirmed today by the local arm of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Washington died last Thursday of natural causes at the age of 81, NAACP spokeswoman Joy Atkinson said. She had been ill for several years and suffered from a form of dementia, the spokewoman said.
An estimated 800 people paid their final respects to former Compton City Councilman and civic activist Maxcy Dean Filer during services at Love and Unity Fellowship Church in Compton.
The Marianna, Ark., native, who was 80, died following a lingering illness.
Filer, who arrived in Los Angeles after serving in the Army in Okinawa, developed a love of law that he would quietly go on to use to influence others to consider the field.
Fifty years ago, Nation of Islam Muslims Monroe X Jones and Fred X Jingles were reportedly taking a garment bag from their vehicle outside Mosque, No. 27, at 56th Street and Broadway late on the evening of April 27, 1962, when LAPD officers Frank Tomlinson and Stanley Kensic pulled up in their police cruiser and questioned the two men. The officers frisked the men and asked where the clothes came from.
States around the nation, in an effort to address what they allege are two issues of major concern—the flow of undocumented immigrants into their environs and the level of illegal voting—have passed a number of controversial laws that are galvanizing opponents.
In Alabama, the state Legislature is currently revisiting its anti-illegal immigration law House Bill 56 and has presented a list of revisions it plans to use to tweak the legislation passed in 2011.
COLUMBIA, S.C.—The South Carolina State Conference of the NAACP and individual Black college students have moved to join a lawsuit to prevent the implementation of South Carolina’s so-called discriminatory voting law.
