Thelma Dale Perkins (October 23, 1915 – September 29, 2014) was an African-American activist.^[1] Her maternal uncle was Frederick Douglass Patterson.^[1] She was also a member of the CPUSA.^[2]

She joined the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, the Liberal Club (an African-American integration group), the Southern Negro Youth Congress, and the American Youth Congress.^[1] As a member of the American Youth Congress she went to the White House for "chats" sponsored by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to discuss the issues facing young people.^[1] She graduated from Howard University in 1936.^[1] She worked for E. Franklin Frasier on a National Youth Administration Fellowship. She later worked for the government but resigned, instead becoming National Secretary of the National Negro Congress.^[1] In 1945 she attended the founding meeting of the Women's International Democratic Federation, held in Paris.^[3]

She was friends with Paul Robeson and his wife Eslanda Robeson, and worked as managing editor for Paul's Freedom newspaper, and was involved in a campaign to get his passport restored.^[4][1] She wrote a tribute to Paul Robeson in the book Paul Robeson: The Great Forerunner (1998), by the editors of Freedomways.^[5] She was a manager of community relations for CIBA-GEIGY Corporation, where she initiated and developed the "Exceptional Black Scientist" series, which was nationally recognized.^[1]

She married Lawrence Rickman Perkins Jr., in 1957, and adopted two children, Lawrence and Patrice.^[1]

Further reading

Radicalism at the Crossroads: African American Women Activists in the Cold War, by Dayo Gore (2011)

References