Herschelle Sullivan Challenor

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While many sources credit Challenor with co-signing the March 9, 1960, Appeal for Human Rights, the students' manifesto published in local newspapers, [14] Challenor was actually still studying in Paris at the time. [5] [15] [16] [1] Upon her return to Atlanta in September 1960, however, Challenor did become co-chair of the students' organization, the Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR). She replaced the founding Co-Chair, John Mack of Clark Atlanta University, who had graduated the previous spring. Her co-leader was Lonnie King. [17] [5]

Early in her tenure as co-chair, Challenor helped arrange for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to join the students in simultaneous, peaceful COAHR-organized sit-ins at lunch counters around Atlanta. [18] [19] [20] On October 19, 1960, with students protesting at several different lunch counters around the city, [18] both Challenor and Dr. King protested at Rich's Department Store, the largest store in Atlanta and thus the local leader in business people's decisions with regard to segregation. [21] [22] They were both arrested there, along with many other students. Dr. King became Challenor's mentor and remained so until his assassination in 1968, even writing her a letter of recommendation for graduate school. [6]

Challenor quickly became the student spokesperson for the Student-Adult Liaison Committee, a group formed over the summer of 1960 to show a unified African-American front in the fight for desegregation in Atlanta. [23] Challenor would attend various adult-only functions, such as church fundraisers to support jailed students, as the students' representative. [24] For example, when the Student-Adult Liaison Committee decided to work together to extend the boycott of lunch counters to all downtown Atlanta businesses, Challenor called a press conference with Reverend William Holmes Borders announcing the broader initiative. [25]

Tuesday, February 7, 1961, saw Challenor's second arrest, during a sit-in in Sprayberry's cafeteria, located in a building that also housed federal offices. [26] Most of the students chose to follow the "Jail-no-bail" campaign, while she and Lonnie King posted bail to keep fighting on the students' behalf in the community. [27]

April, 1961, Challenor, Benjamin Brown, Charles Lyles, and Lonnie King filed a federal lawsuit against "public" facilities owned by the city. They did so without a lawyer, submitting the suit on the seventh anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The filing was a class action on behalf of all African-American residents of Atlanta. On August 27, 1962, the courts ruled in their favor. By this time, Challenor was already studying at Johns Hopkins University and was no longer an active member of the Atlanta Student Movement. [28]

In 2010, the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library & Museum honored Challenor along with thirty-four other women who fought for civil rights in Atlanta. Challenor was a member of the speakers' panel at the event. [29]

Career

While working on her doctorate, in 1966, Challenor did work as an "interpreter escort" for women visiting from African locations for the Women's African Committee of the Africa-American Institute. [30] From 1969 to 1972, she served as an assistant professor at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College Department of Political Science during which time she was also a Fellow at Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs in Chicago (1970-1971). [12]

In 1972, Dr. Challenor's work shifted to Washington, D.C. She served as an American Political Science Studies Association Congressional Fellow, working for Congressman Charles Diggs, Jr of Michigan. [12] The same year, presidential nominee Senator George McGovern selected a panel of foreign policy advisors, including Challenor. [31] https://www.unmultimedia.org/avlibrary/asset/2148/2148870/</ref>.

The following year (1973), Challenor went to work for the Ford Foundation, as its Program Officer for Diversity Education and Research, where she stayed for two years. [12] Her next post, as the Staff Director for Committee on International Relations at US House of Representatives, lasted from 1975-1978. [12] From there she moved to United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1978, as the Senior Liaison Officer in the Washington, D.C. Communications Liaison Office, and in 1983 she became UNESCO's Director of Washington office. [12] . She next served as Coordinator of the World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1997) for several years at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France.

Clark Atlanta University established its School of International Relations in 1993, and Dr. Challenor accepted the role of dean of the school. While there, she helped use a $3 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to "internationalize" the school. [32] During her tenure at CAU, President Bill Clinton appointed Challenor to the National Security Education Board (NSEB) [33] [34] of the National Security Education Program, where she helps determine the skills national security employees should possess. She served two terms, starting in 1994 and 1999. [35] In 2002, Dr. Challenor switched positions at CAU to become the Professor of International Relations & African Affairs, Department of International Affairs and Development.

Dr. Challenor's final professional positions were with United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She was originally hired as administrator Constance Berry Newman's Special Assistant. From 2004 to 2006, Challenor served as Director of Democracy and Governance Programs at the USAID Mission in Conakry, Guinea. [36]

Publications

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Challenor, Herschelle Sullivan (Interviewee) and Jeanne Law Bohannon (Interviewer) (August 25, 2017). Atlanta Student Movement Project: Dr. Herschelle Sullivan Challenor Interview (Transcript). Kansas State University Scholarly Online Access Repository.
  2. 1 2 Molzhan, Kathryn (July 17, 1966). "Interpreter Speaks Against Prejudice". Post-Crescent. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ Zinn, Howard (2018). Howard Zinn's Southern Diary: Sit-ins, Civil Rights, and Black Women's Student Activism. Athens: University of Georgia Press. p. 62. ISBN   9780820353227.
  4. ↑ "To Study Abroad". The Crisis. 66: 573. November 1956 – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 3 Lefever, Harry G. (2005). Undaunted by the Fight: Spelman College and the Civil Rights Movement, 1957/1967. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. p. 19. ISBN   9780865549388.
  6. 1 2 3 Carson, Clayborne; Armstrong, Tenisha; Carson, Susan; Englander, Susan; Cook, Erin (2008). The Martin Luther King, Jr., Encyclopedia. Ann Arbor, MI: Greenwood Press. p. 53. ISBN   9780313294402.
  7. ↑ Lefever, Harry G. (2005). Undaunted by the Fight: Spelman College and the Civil Rights Movement, 1957/1967. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. page 40. ISBN   9780865549388.
  8. ↑ "Herschelle Sullivan Challenor, C'60, Played a Significant Role in the Atlanta Student Movement". Spelman College. March 2016. Retrieved February 10, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Negros Will Enter the Teacher Program". Courier-Journal. March 19, 1961. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Herschelle Sullivan". SAIS Magazine: 31. Summer 2018.
  11. ↑ King, Martin Luther, Clayborne Carson, Peter Holloran, Ralph E. Luker, and Penny A. Russell. 1992. The papers of Martin Luther King, Jr. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 334. ISBN   9780520079502
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations (1983). Executive Council on Foreign Diplomats: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Ninety-eighth Congress, First Session, June 16, 1983. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. 34.
  13. ↑ Chanellor, Herschelle (1970). French speaking West Africa's Dahomeyan strangers in colonization and decolonization (Doctoral thesis). New York City: Columbia University. OCLC   6888573.
  14. ↑ Grady-Willis, Winston A (2006). Challenging U.S. apartheid: Atlanta and black struggles for human rights, 1960-1977. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 5. ISBN   9780822337782.
  15. ↑ King, Lonnie (2013). "Atlanta Student Movement Timeline Committee on Appeal for Human Rights (COAHR) 1960-1964". Civil Rights Movement Archive. Retrieved February 11, 2020.
  16. ↑ Grady-Willis, Winston A (2006). Challenging U.S. apartheid: Atlanta and black struggles for human rights, 1960-1977. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press. page 6.
  17. ↑ Conner, Alysha (February 22, 2019). "Legacy of the Atlanta Student Movement". Atlanta Voice. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  18. 1 2 Lefever, Harry G. (2005). Undaunted by the Fight: Spelman College and the Civil Rights Movement, 1957/1967. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. pages 62-3. ISBN   9780865549388.
  19. ↑ Fort, Vincent D (January 5, 1980). "The Atlanta Sit-In Movement, 1960-1961: an Oral Study". Digital Commons, Atlanta University Center: 32–34.
  20. ↑ Lewis, John; D'Orso, Michael (1998). Walking with the wind: a memoir of the movement. New York, New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 120. ISBN   9780684810652.
  21. ↑ Ferris, Marcie C (2014). The Edible South: The Power of Food and the Making of an American Region. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. p. 280. ISBN   9781469617695.
  22. ↑ "Dawn's Early Light," Ralph McGill Papers, Woodruff Library, Emory University, Atlanta, GA. https://web.archive.org/web/20000824145052/http://www.unbrokencircle.org/scripts22
  23. ↑ Lefever, Harry G. (2005). Undaunted by the Fight: Spelman College and the Civil Rights Movement, 1957/1967. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. page 51. ISBN   9780865549388.
  24. ↑ Galphin, Bruce (February 20, 1961). "Negroes at Rally Cheer Call for More Support". The Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  25. ↑ Galphin, Bruce (November 30, 1960). "Sit-In Chiefs Widen Downtown Protests". The Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  26. ↑ McCartney, Keeler (February 8, 1961). "Lonnie King, 12 Others Held Under $100 Bond in Sit-In". The Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  27. ↑ Sitton, Claude (February 9, 1961). "Fifty Choose Jail in 3-City Sit-Ins" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved February 18, 2020.
  28. ↑ Ginger, Ann Fagan (November 1962). "Civil Liberties Docket". Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute Archives, Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  29. ↑ Clark, Tony (September 17, 2010). "Carter Library Honors 35 Atlanta Freedom's Sisters: Women Who Fought for Civil Rights in Atlanta" (PDF). Jimmy Carter Presidential Museum and Library. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  30. ↑ Molzahn, Kathryn (July 17, 1966). "Interpreter Speaks Against Prejudice". Post-Crescent. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  31. ↑ Associated Press (August 25, 1972). "McGovern Picks Foreign Policy Advisors". Arizona Republic.
  32. ↑ Towns, Gail H (June 24, 1997). "Centers of Excellence". Atlanta Constitution.
  33. ↑ "President Names Herschelle Challenor to the National Security Education Board". National Archives. August 4, 1994. Retrieved February 13, 2020.
  34. ↑ "Nominations Submitted to the Senate." Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, October 25, 1999, 2122-2123.
  35. ↑ "National Security Education Board". National Security Education Program.
  36. ↑ CHAIRMAN PAYNE ISSUES STATEMENT ON PROSPECTS FOR PEACE IN GUINEA. (2007, March 22). US Fed News Service, Including US State News.
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Herschelle Sullivan Challenor
Known forkey activist in the Atlanta Student Movement
Academic background
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