By
Andrew DeMarco
February is Black History Month and during this month we will celebrate the accomplishments of famous African Americans. We will hear stories of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, George Washington Carver, the Tuskegee Airmen and a host of others whose accomplishments cannot be denied. But I am sure few of us will hear about Dovey Johnson Roundtree who according to the co-author of her memoir Katie McCabe said, “For all her perseverance and all her prowess she remained by temperament, choice and political circumstance, comparatively unknown.” Well I would like to tell you a bit about her because she is more than deserving of having her story told.
I first learned of Ms. Roundtree just about a year ago when I happened to come across her obituary in the New York Times. The first thing that attracted me to her was that she lived to the tender age of 104 and once I read the obituary, I realized that this was an extraordinary woman. Ms. Roundtree was born in Charlotte N.C. on April 17, 1914 a time when Jim Crow was prevalent and she experienced all the ugliness and horrors that one might expect a black person to endure at that time. But she was undeterred and became a Jackie Robinson and Rosa Parks before they made their impressions in the Civil Rights movement.
After attending Spelman College in Atlanta and not having the money for medical school she taught for three years. In 1941, living in Washington, D.C. she became an inaugural member of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps and in 1942 became the first woman of any color to be commissioned an Army Officer. She was a leader of black and white women at a time when the Army was still segregated and would be until 1948 when President Truman desegregated the armed forces. But this was just her jumping off point. In 1947 she entered Howard University Law School and in 1950 earned her law degree.
In 1952, working as a lawyer in Washington she took on the case of Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. This landmark decision helped secure a ban on racial segregation in interstate bus travel and happened three years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in Montgomery, Alabama. Although overturned, this led to a better known Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which desegregated schools. The Interstate Commerce Commission later adopted regulations banning segregation on interstate travel all of which was the result of Ms. Roundtree’s efforts in the Sarah Keys case.
But Ms. Roundtree was far from done with her firsts. Having become disillusioned with the law she again returned to Howard University and entered their divinity school and the next year was the first woman ordained in the A.M.E. Church. She then continued to preach and eventually also practiced law again and in 1970 founded the law firm Roundtree, Knox, Hunter & Parker which endures today.
After reading this obituary I realized what an incredible life this woman had and I also realized that I was not reading about a black woman or a white one but rather a remarkable human being, one who’s accomplishments should serve as a role model for everyone. I also realized that this woman was under the radar and that hopefully she will get her due. Finally, it reinforced in me that the only thing that holds us back in this country is ourselves. This story is proof that in this country more than any other, anyone can buck the odds if they have the will and desire to do so and reach their dreams. Knowing this gives me that feeling that Cousin Bob Would call that…Rosy Glow.
If anyone is interested, to learn even more about Ms. Roundtree a link to her obituary in the New York Times is listed below. Also, her memoir is called “Justice Older than the Law.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/obituaries/dovey-johnson-roundtree-dead.html
Bob's Rosy Glow 