MAY YOU REST IN PEACE, DEAR EVELYN

25 January 1916 - 29 April 2010

“I think we find happiness in retrospect.  We don’t recognize it at the moment. I see the sun set every day from my home and that’s a moment of pure joy.”  Evelyn Cunningham, a founder of both the New York Coalition of 100 Black Women and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, shared this perspective in Essence magazine in 1999. And all who knew her marveled at her magnificent life and career. During her lifetime, she mentored many young women, including Jewell Jackson McCabe, NCBW’s first president, and Natatia Griffith, a current national board member.
Her career started after her graduation from Long Island University in 1943.  As the New York City editor of the Pittsburgh Courier, the largest and most influential African American newspaper in the country at the time, Cunningham covered all the major civil rights events of the 1950s and 1960s.  In this role, she interviewed Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and many other prominent leaders.  In addition, she also branched out into radio journalism, becoming the commentator/host of “At Home with Evelyn Cunningham” on WLIB from 1961 to 1962.

After 1962, she pursued a post-journalism career as an activist and administrator, holding a series of public and private positions that included government appointments, board memberships and executive roles in various organizations for various projects.  She was appointed by the most influential politicians of the day—Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Governors Nelson Rockefeller and Mario Cuomo and Mayor Dinkins.

Born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and reared in her beloved Harlem, New York, Evelyn Cunningham died at Jewish Home and Hospital in Manhattan. Also known for her elegant style and the considerable influence that she wielded in several spheres, she will surely be missed.

Submitted by Shirley L Poole, Executive Director
National Coalition of 100 Black Women

Photo Credit:Librado Romero/The New York Times