Tommie Morton-Young
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tommie Morton-Young is an educator, activist, author, and historian. After becoming the first African-American to graduate from George Peabody College for Teachers, she went on to work as a librarian and professor in both education and library science. Her human rights activism and work preserving African American history has earned her recognition by a number of organizations in Tennessee.
A native of Nashville, Tennessee, Morton-Young attended public schools and earned her undergraduate degree cum laude from Tennessee State University.[1] She was the first African American to graduate from George Peabody College for Teachers (later Peabody College of Vanderbilt University), earning her Master of Library Science in 1955.[1] She completed a Ph.D. in social psychology from Duke University in 1977.[2]
Morton-Young has worked at a number of government and higher education organizations, including researching for the U.S. Navy Library and transliterating Russian at the Library of Congress.[1] She worked as an administrator and a professor of education and library and information science at a number of universities, including Atlanta University, Tennessee State University, the University of Wisconsin, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and North Carolina A&T State University.[1] She retired as a full professor from the University of North Carolina system.[1]
Activism and advocacy work
In 1979 Morton-Young founded the North Carolina African American Genealogical and Historical Society; she founded the Tennessee African American Genealogical and Historical Society in 1994.[3] She served as director of the NAACP's Parent Education/Child Advocacy Project.[4] Morton-Young co-chaired the Greensboro Coalition for Unity & Justice, a group of community activists that held demonstrations against the Ku Klux Klan in 1987.[5]
As chairperson of the North Carolina Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, she initiated hearings on pay equity for women and minorities and school placement of students.[1][6] During her twenty years on that committee she also contributed to a United States Department of Labor study on migrant workers.[7][8]
Morton-Young has written books on a variety of subjects, including on works on after-school activities for at-risk children, Tennessee history, and African-American history and genealogy.[2] One of her most notable books is the 1987 Afro-American genealogy sourcebook, an early work in African-American genealogy.[7] She is the owner and operator of a tour company that focuses on the African-American history of Nashville.[2]
