Willie Stevenson Glanton: Tennessee State University Alum and Human and Civil Rights Trailblazer

Rep. Willie Stevenson Glanton

On July 6, 2017, Rep. Willie Stevenson Glanton, Iowa’s first Black female legislator died at 95. A Humanitarian and Civil Rights legend, Rep. Glanton, had many ties to the Nashville community. She and her husband, Judge Luther T. Glanton, were graduates of Tennessee State University. According to TSU’s yearbook, Ayeni, Rep. Glanton graduated in 1942 and her husband, Judge Glanton, graduated in 1939. The Glantons were aunt and uncle to 1980 TSU alum and local attorney, Luvell Glanton. He credits them for being role models to him as well as other members of the Glanton family.

In the Ole South, when Black folks were still drinking from colored only water fountains, could not enter the front door of many establishments, or even marry outside their race; Rep. Glanton was blazing trails as a woman and a person of color. She was the first woman elected to the Iowa General Assembly; the first woman to become assistant Polk County attorney; the first woman and first Black person elected president of the Iowa Chapter of the Federal Bar Association; the first Back attorney at the U.S. Small Business Administration in 1966 and the first Black member of the Des Moines City Council in 1985.

Rep. Glanton, a native of Hot Springs, Arkansas, was raised by her father and mother, a businessman and a teacher, who were very active in voter registration education with the Negro Civic League. Her early childhood educators were influencers who encouraged her to attend college.  Her abilities to speak and write well led her to TSU. While at TSU, Rep. Glanton was an excellent student and was a member of several clubs and collegiate organizations; Personality Torch Bearers, Alba Rosa Club, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Secretary of Forensic Society, Student Christian Association, Alpha Iota Business Fraternity, History Study Club and Miss Arkansas 1941. After graduating with a B.S. in business, Rep. Glanton spent seven years “having a great time getting to know Washington, D. C.” where she met leaders like Mary McCloud Bethune. She earned her law degree from Robert H. Terrell Law School and started working with the U. S. War Department. 

Judge Glanton takes the Oath of Office

In 1942, when Rep. Glanton was graduating from TSU, her future husband, Judge Glanton, was graduating from Drake Law School, where he was the first Black Student. Following his graduation, Judge Glanton joined the U. S. Army and served as an intelligence officer during World War II. After the war, he served on the staff of U.S. chief prosecutor, Robert Jackson, at the Nuremberg trials, which prosecuted prominent members of Nazi Germany who had participated in executing millions of Jews during the Holocaust. Judge Glanton remained active in the U.S. Army Reserves for many years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. He later became Iowa's first Black judge in 1959.

When the Glantons started their legal careers after TSU, segregation was deeply woven into the fabric of America. In 1939, when Judge Glanton graduated, World War II was beginning. In 1942, when Rep. Glanton graduated and Judge Glanton from Drake University, Blacks were being lynched throughout the South. In 1948, President Truman outlawed segregation in the military that Judge Glanton had already served in for six year. By then, Judge Glanton had helped take to trial the Nazis who started WW II.

The Glantons were married in 1951. One year after Rep. Glanton passed the bar in Iowa in 1953, she became the first woman assistant attorney in Polk County, Iowa. Judge Glanton was the first Black assistant county attorney in 1951. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court Ruled on Brown v. Board of Topeka Kansas. In August 1955, Emmett Till was murdered in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. And, in December 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott started. As the Glantons were setting up their offices and would eventual become a legal power couple, our country was bursting at the seams with the desperate need for legal minds to fight segregation and racism in the courtrooms at the local, state, and federal levels. The Glantons fought segregation and racism on all fronts, at home and abroad.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott

In 1964, when Rep. Glanton ran for office for the Iowa General Assembly, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, declaring discrimination based on race illegal. The 24th Amendment abolished the poll tax, which originally had been established in the South after Reconstruction to make it difficult for poor blacks to vote. Even though those gains were momentous, the fight for equality was met with violence and indifference. During that same year, three civil rights workers, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, disappeared in Mississippi. They were found buried six weeks later.

At the time she decided to run for public office, Rep. Glanton knew her race would play a major factor in her bid. Nevertheless, it did not stop her. In a statement to the Carrol Times on July 11, 1964, she stated, “I am a Negro and I think anyone would be conscious of this.” The paper goes on to state that she deplored the inevitable speculation that she may be running just to prove a Negro can be elected. “I think the only way to combat,” she stopped and began again, “I would hope that the substance of what I had to say would take care of that.” 

She won, of course. And made headline news around the world.

Luvell Glanton, TSU '80

When Luvell Glanton was asked about his rich, family’s legacy and the gains they championed for Human and Civil Rights vs. today’s racial climate of our country, he stated, “My uncle and aunt would be having a fit! However, they would not be sitting on the sidelines laying down. They would be actively protesting and helping to make changes by challenging the injustices that we are seeing. We are not fighting anymore. We are allowing what we are seeing to happen.” He further stated, “I attended Drake University because of my uncle who was then a board trustee. He pushed me and made me do what I needed to do to become successful. We are a family of lawyers and doctors. My son, Luvell, Jr. is a M.D., and my nieces, Jerice Glanton and Syeta Glanton, are lawyers. They followed their examples as well. My uncle and aunt were very well connected throughout their careers. Many are not aware of this but Attorney General Robert Kennedy wanted him to serve in his administration had he lived and won.”

According to Des Moines University website: 

Rep. Willie Stevenson Glanton and Judge Luther T. Glanton circa mid '80s.

 In 2004, to honor the Glantons’ leadership, service and commitment to justice and education, Des Moines University established the Luther T. Glanton Jr. and Willie Stevenson Glanton Fund. With donor contributions, the fund provides scholarships for minority students, under-represented in health care, and supports programming that helps all DMU students become more culturally competent health professionals. DMU’s annual Glanton Dinner has since become a signature event that brings together hundreds of people representing civic, business and nonprofit organizations.

 Rep. Willlie Stevenson Glanton and Dr. Angela Walker Franklin, 15th President DMU

The Nashville ties with the Glantons do not stop with family or TSU. Meharry has a connection as well. Judge Glanton joined the DMU Board of Trustees in 1979; when he died in 1991, Rep. Glanton took his place on the board and became its chair in 1999 and served until 2012. When former executive Vice President and provost of Meharry Medical College, Dr. Angela Walker Franklin, became the 15^th president of DMU in spring 2011, a close friendship developed between the two women. On the passing of Rep. Glanton, Dr. Franklin stated, “Mrs. Glanton was an inspiration to so many. She was a trailblazer, an innovator, a champion for women and minorities, and all around friend and mentor. She meant so much to me as I assumed my role at DMU. I am there for many reasons. One in particular is because she was there on the board, an encouraging and supportive spirit.”

Rep. Glanton was very involved in her church and many civic organizations. She  received numerous awards over her lifetime and was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame in 1986 and chosen as on of Des Moines Registers' "10 most influential Black Iowans of the 20th Century."

A wake will be held from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. July 14, with tributes starting at 5:30. The memorial service will start at 11 a.m. July 15 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 4114 Allison Ave.,  Des Moines, Iowa followed by burial at McLarens Resthaven Cemetery in West Des Moines.

Sources: Newspapers.com, Carrol Times, TSU’s Ayeni, American Bar Association, Des Moines Register and DMU.

               

Margot James Copeland on Living Your Best Life Radio

 Update: Audio of show can be heard here.

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations, leaders, and volunteers who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations, leaders, and volunteers embody "Be the change you want to see in the world."

On Saturday, May 10, 2014, tune in to hear one of our country's most inspiring leaders, Margot James Copeland, CEO and Chair of  KeyBank Foundation. Copeland will share chapters from her life Mother's Day weekend. She will fondly share about being raised in an HBCU community that was a "rich environment" where the focus was not money but character building. Copeland shares with a smile in her voice, "It was not if you were going to college but where."

Margot James Copeland and Traci Otey Blunt: TNJ 's 2014 25 Most Influential Women in Business Honorees

Margot James Copeland and Genma Stringer Holmes in New York

Copeland will share her journey to being one of the most influential corporate executives and how she credits being at the helm of Leadership Cleveland as one of the defining moments in her career prior to joining KeyBank. She also shares advice on being true to yourself, servant leadership, and diversity.

Copeland will discuss the importance of being in the community in order to lead the community. She will share thoughts on the millennial generation and how they use social media to promote advocacy to address change. Copeland also talks about current issues like #brinkbackourgirls and what the protests surrounding Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis  said about the culture of today's youth and social injustice.

Margot James Copeland Named Hampton University’s 2013 Alumnus of the Year!

Copeland will share her most memorable moments as a daughter with her mother,Thelma James Taylor, while lovingly recalling her favorite Mother's Day moments with her children, Reverend Kimberly, Dr. Garrison, and Michael Copeland. She will also share why she believes college graduations held on Mother's Day are one truly the ultimate Mother's Day gift!

Living Your Best Life, a radio show that empowers, inspires and motivates one to live their BEST life, can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network.

More about Margot James Copeland

Copeland began her corporate career at Xerox Corporation, Polaroid, and Picker International. In 1992, she was hired as executive director for Leadership Cleveland, a program of the Greater Cleveland Growth Association that develops community leaders. After seven years at Leadership Cleveland, Copeland became president and CEO of the Greater Cleveland Roundtable, a nonprofit organization founded to improve multicultural and multiracial relations in the Cleveland area. She joined KeyCorp in 2001, and served as executive vice president - director, corporate diversity and philanthropy and as an executive council member. KeyCorp is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies and, within her position as chair and CEO of the KeyBank Foundation, she managed the company’s annual $20 million philanthropic investment program and oversaw diversity initiatives. KeyCorp has been included in DiversityInc magazine’s list of 50 Top Companies for Diversity in 2005, 2007, 2008, and 2009 and ranked 13th among the most generous cash giving companies in America in a 2003 list published by BusinessWeek. In 2013, the KeyBank Foundation was recognized as a Civic 50 Company by the National Conference on Citizenship, Points of Light and Bloomberg LP. 

Copeland has participated in a number of community organizations and boards. In 2010, she became the fifteenth president of The Links, Inc. She has also served as the president of the Junior League of Cleveland, Inc., sat on the Kent State University board of trustees, acted as Mentor/Protégé Program Advisor for Morehouse College, and is a member of the Business School Advisory board at Hampton University.  

Copeland was listed as one of the “100 Most Powerful Women in Cleveland” by New Cleveland Woman magazine, and in 2012, Savoy magazine included her in a list of the “100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America.” She is also the recipient of the YWCA Career Woman of Achievement Award; was the 2006 Black Professional of the Year as recognized by Black Professionals Association Charitable Foundation; received the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Community Service Award; and the W.O. Walker Excellence in Community Service Award, sponsored by the Call and Post newspaper. Copeland also received the distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award in 2013 from Hampton University. (source)


Photo credits: Genma Holmes, Links, Inc., KeyBank, and Hampton University

Sheryl Lee Ralph on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations and leaders who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations and leaders embody "Be the change you want to see in the world".

Throughout 2013, listeners will hear from presidents of organizations who are global change agents. We will also hear from CEOs of social enterprise businesses who are changing communities and college educators who are taking their students out of the classroom and into surrounding neighborhoods to learn and serve others.

On Saturday, July 13, 2013 tune in to hear from actress, singer, and HIV/AIDS activist, Sheryl Lee Ralph. Listen to her share sage advice about the business of Hollywood, overcoming set backs, and knowing who to take with you on your journey to the top. Miss Ralph cautions us about the perils of stardom and addresses several issues regarding reality TV and the negative images that are cloaking American women of color.

Listen to her passionately discuss her organization, The Diva Foundation, and why she is mission focused to help find a cure for HIV/AIDS. Miss Ralph also talks about her book, Refining Diva. This powerful interview will empower, inspire, and motivate you to live your BEST life.

Tune into 760AM in the Middle Tennessee Region, on Tune In,  streaming live on line at UStream.TV , and on military bases on Saturdays from 9:00-10am CST. 


More About Sheryl Lee Ralph 

 With continued success on stage, screen, television and music along with her philanthropic endeavors, Sheryl Lee Ralph has never been one to rest on her laurels. A triple threat dreamgirl, Ralph is an acclaimed veteran of film, television and the Broadway stage. Her award-winning work includes creating the role of Deena Jones in the legendary Broadway musical, "Dreamgirls," and earning Best Actress nods for Tony and Drama Desk Awards. Recently, she returned to Broadway for a 12-month stint in the Tony-award winning musical, "Thoroughly Modern Millie,' portraying the sassy chanteuse Muzzy Van Hossmere.

Currently, she is touring the one-woman play, "Sometimes I Cry," a production written and performed by Sheryl Lee Ralph, which explores the lives, loves, and losses of women infected and affected by HIV.

No stranger to television, Sheryl Lee Ralph credits include "It's a Living," "Designing Women," "The District," and most notably, "Moesha." On the big screen, she has worked with some of Hollywood's leading and award-winning men with film credits that include "The Mighty Quinn" with Denzel Washington; "Mistress" with Robert de Niro; "To Sleep With Anger" with Danny Glover and "The Distinguished Gentlemen" with Eddie Murphy. Ralph picked up a win for Best Supporting Actress at the Independent Spirit Awards for her performance in "To Sleep With Anger."

Finding success in writing and directing, Sheryl's award-winning short film, "Secrets," co-starring award-winning actress Alfre Woodard and Robin Givens was a finalist in the HBO Film Short Competition, Showtime's Filmmaker Award Series, and the BET Filmmaker Award Competition. The film was also selected as the audience favorite at the Outfest Film Festival. "Secrets" was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as the Hollywood Film Festival, the Acapulco Film Festival and the Urban World Film Festival.

Sheryl Lee Ralph is also the creator of the Jamaican Film and Music Festival.

More About The Diva Foundation

The DIVA Foundation is an international 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Sheryl Lee Ralph in 1990 as a memorial to the many friends she lost to AIDS. The organization focuses on generating resources and producing events that raise awareness and educate millions of people around the world affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. The DIVA Foundation utilizes music, entertainment and voice as a vehicle to inform, educate and reduce the stigma attached to this deadly disease that affects us ALL.

For over 20 years The DIVA Foundation has presented, with sponsorship from caring companies, DIVAS SIMPLY SINGING! - a magical evening of song and entertainment created to raise funds for HIV/AIDS awareness, allowing The DIVA Foundation to continue to help and support those in need. The DIVA Foundation has acted locally but is widening its sphere of influence to include more HIV/AIDS programs around the country and globe.

The DIVA Foundation awareness campaigns have grown to include: "Sometimes I Cry" a one woman-show written and performed by Sheryl Lee Ralph, "Sisters Circle", town hall meetings, prevention seminars, free HIV testing and counseling, and free healthcare materials. Along with community leaders and health experts, Sheryl Lee Ralph hosts a sponsored luncheon where gloves must be worn to drive home the slogan: "No glove, No love!" This event provides a non-threatening, intimate atmosphere where guests can get much needed information, address critical issues, ask questions and be assured of an educated and informed answer. Sheryl Lee Ralph has also recorded a series of HIV awareness PSAs for grass roots organizations in need of assistance.

The Sheryl Lee Ralph's Home Fragrance Collection provides another way for others to help light the candle of compassion to guide us in our fight against HIV/AIDS. Partial proceeds from the sale of these candles go to support The DIVA Foundation and its programs.

The Sisters Circle is an unprecedented four-day HIV/AIDS summit held in South Africa bringing together a community of infected and affected women of African decent to share their stories and plan action.

Donations can be made here.