NAACP, SNCC, Albany Movement, SCLC — Albany, GA
(1959-1963
Mass Meetings-Americus, GA; Dawson, GA; Leesburg, GA (1963)
I made my entrance onto the stage of life in Albany, Georgia on August 29, 1939 as the oldest of five children born to Paul Lawrence Jones a carpenter, and Delores Berry Jones, a homemaker who hand-washed and ironed laundry for white clients. I was reared in a loving extended family home that included my maternal grandparents and, for a time, great grandfather. My formative years played themselves out in a nurturing, supportive community that included the First Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church where I was baptized, attended church and Sunday School, participated in the church s Christmas and Easter programs, sang in the junior choir and acted as secretary of the Sunday School and secretary of the Baptist Training Union.
Throughout my involvement with the Civil Rights Movement, I had the support of my family who felt I was living up to their expectations. When I see some of the long-term positive results of The Albany Movement in Albany (desegregation, biracial governing and law enforcement, job opportunities, Albany Civil Rights Institute, to name a few) I am glad I was a part of I and wish I could have done more.
Education:
Personal: In 1964, I married Frank Irvin White, a high school and college mathematics teacher who later joined IBM in Endicott, N.Y. In 1969, while in New York, I was active with the Broome County Urban League Guild and the Broome County Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Frank joined IBM's Faculty Loan Program in 1974, transferred to Petersburg, VA and taught computer science at Virginia State College for a year while I enrolled in the College s graduate school of education.
Transferred to Atlanta in 1976, Frank worked for IBM until he retired in 1993 and I was employed at Spelman College until 1998. Frank taught for six years in Spelman College's mathematics department until he retired in 1999 due to ill health. He died in June, 2003. Two children were born to this 37 year union: Melanie Francine White (Eley) — Spelman College, 1987 and Sharmian Lynell White, Harvard University, 1990; University of Texas at Austin Law School, 1993.
A former secretary, civil rights activist and educator/administrator, I have two grandchildren, Andrew, and Lauren. I live in East Point, GA and am engaged by schools, churches, historians and scholars to discuss my experiences in the Civil Rights Movement. I am presently completing a memoir and a collection of poems.
Employment Experiences: Secretary, Attorney C.B. King, Albany, GA, 1958; English teacher, Monroe High School Albany, GA, 1966; Lead Teacher/Center Director in Various Harambee Child Development Centers-in Albany, GA and Atlanta GA 1968-1978; Secretary to Editor and Ad Department, ( Proof reading, Re-writing, local and national ad composition, billing) at the Atlanta Daily World, 1978-81; Kindergarten teacher at the Atlanta University Child Care Center, l981-85; Kindergarten teacher at the Spelman College Nursery-kindergarten School, 1985-89; Director of the Spelman College Nursery-Kindergarten School, 1989-97; Lecturer in education, Spelman College Education Department, 1989-96 — (Retired, 1998.); Assisted in Researching, editing and writing text for the Albany Civil Rights Institute, 2007-09.
Honors:
Organizational Affiliations — Past and Present Life Member, National Council of Negro Women; life member Spelman College Alumnae Association; life member Albany State University Alumni Association, Charter Member of the Fellows of the Albany State University Alumni Association Property; Member American Association of University Women, Inc.; Charter member National Museum of the American Indian; Albany Civil Rights Institute; Southern Poverty Law Center; NAACP; Emily s List; Public Citizen; Sierra Club; Peace Action; United Farm Workers of America; Food & Water Watch; Water Alliance; CREDO Action; Democratic National Committee; Progressive Change Campaign Committee; Oceana; Drug Policy Alliance; Democratic Party of Georgia; National Resources Defense Council; Organizing for America; ANERA; Covenant House; Atlanta Union Mission; Campaign for Tibet; CARE; Women s League of Voters; Save the Children; Children International, Vietnam Veterans Against the War; Paralyzed Veterans of America; Green Peace; St. Jude s Hospital, American Civil Liberties Union; Physicians for Social Change; Democracy for America; The Carter Center, Women s Solidarity Society of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Habitat for Humanity; Moveon.org; etc.
Published Articles and Poetry:
To Bernice Reagon, Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill.1970, p. 19.Winter, Black World, Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill 1974, p. 53.
Annette Jones White, speech made at Union Baptist Church in Albany, GA edited by Joe Ffister for Southern Exposure, Institute for Southern Studies, Durham, NC, Jan./Feb., 1982, pp, 25-27.
Cane Weaving: A Nineteen-Year Quest, Sage: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women, Vol. IV, Number 1, The Sage Women s Educational Press, Inc., Spring, 1987, p. 33-36.
Christmas Memories: Georgia on My Mind, American Visions, Volume 2, Number 6, The Visions `Foundation, December, 1987, pp. 13-15.
Inauguration Time, Spelman Messenger, Vol. 104, No. 2, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA, Winter, 1988, p. 39.
Dyad-Triad, Double Stitch. Editors Patricia Bell-Scott, Beverly Guy-Sheftall et al. Beacon Press, Boston. MA, 1991, pp. 188-195.
African-American Women Share Their Mothers Words of Wisdom, My Mother Had A Dream, edited by Tamara Nikuradse, Penguin Books USA, Inc., May, 1996, pp. 90-91, 158, 187, 201.
Devoted to You, and Lovers Dialogue, African-American Wedding Readings, edited by Tamara Nikuradse, Dutton, January, 1998, pp. 36-37, 65.
Finding Form for the Expression of My Discontent, Hands On the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts By Women in SNCC. edited by Faith Holsaert, Martha Noonan et al, University of Illinois Press, Chicago, Illinois, 2010, pp.100-119.
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