An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 3/28/2021
(Originally slated to post later in April, ultimately Brayboy's
biography appeared prior the next entry, Violette Neatley Anderson)
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Meet Ella Mae Brayboy, Atlanta's very own "Godmother of Voter Registration." (I had actually planned to study and illustrate her story later in April, but somehow it feels VERY appropriate to discuss her life and legacy, just now, so... this lesson has been moved up. Hence my somewhat-rushed ink-and-watercolor mix.)
Born in 1919 Atlanta, Ella Mae (neé Wade) graduated in 1935 from the historic Booker T. Washington High School --a landmark for which she would later campaign to have placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Civic activism called to Ella Mae while attending that school, and she was soon immersed in what would become a lifelong commitment to civil rights and advocacy for the under-served, beginning with the SCLC and then Martin Luther King's voter registration drive.
It was specifically the cause of voter registration that elevated Ella Mae to near-legendary status. In 1964, she became one of Georgia's first black deputy voter registrars. In the decade that followed, she registered a record 10,000 black voters.
In her remarkable 92 years, she worked as a congressional aide to Congressman Andrew Young, was a member of the Community Council of Atlanta (1973-1976), and was director of community affairs for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (1975-1989). Among her proudest achievements were establishing use of the Atlanta Public Library for voter registration, and she also was involved in replacement of the state's centralized balloting system with voting precincts.
Through the years, Mrs. Brayboy's work was honored by churches, civic groups and politicians, but her focus always remained within her beloved home state of Georgia. She played a role in the establishment of a geriatric clinic at Grady Hospital. In 1988 she received the YWCA's Women of Achievement Award, and in 1993, as chair of the Resource Development for the Fulton County Council on Aging, she fought and won the battle to allow thousands of senior citizens to ride taxis for half fare.
In 2019, the Ella Mae Wade Brayboy Park in Atlanta was dedicated in her memory.
Next page - Lesson 79: James Morris Lawson, Jr.