Mary Alexander was born in a small Tennessee town and came to
Champaign in 1938 after college graduation. She came with the
idea that employment opportunities would be plentiful, open housing
was in place, but she found this was not true, so she set about
the work of trying to improve the plight of the African-American
populace. She joined forces with the League of Women Voters to
improve housing opportunities and to bring more programs into
the schools that would serve the underprivileged children.
In 1954, she became a member of the newly organized Council for
Community Integration, spearheaded by W. Ellison Chalmers and
many interested faculty members. It was an interracial organization
whose goal was to persuade the community to value persons and
make no distinction because of race, creed or nationality.
She co-founded the Champaign-Urbana Improvement Association headed
by the late Reverend Graves. Its basic purpose was to crumble
the walls of segregation in employment. The first project was
to picket the new J. C. Penney Store. A boycott was formed and
after three weeks, J. C. Penney opened its employment to African-Americans.
Several local businesses followed.
Mary Alexander has been active in many school and community organizations
including P.T.A., the Urban League, the Champaign Human Relations
Commission and the East Central Illinois Area Office on Aging.
She is a lifetime member of the Salem Baptist Church and Church
Women United.
She retired from the University of Illinois as a Food Service
Administrator after more than 25 years of service. She is the
mother of two daughters and two sons.
Mary
Alexander
)
denotes original charter members of the Champaign County Section
of the National Council of Negro Women.