Alcenya Crowley

Alcenya Crowley
Born
Alcenya McElwain

(1926-04-26)April 26, 1926
St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
DiedSeptember 12, 2010
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
NationalityAmerican, Canadian
Other namesAlcenya Crowley-Morrow
Occupation(s)Educator
Activist

Alcenya Crowley (April 3, 1926 – September 12, 2010), born Alcenya McElwain, was an American-born Canadian educator and activist.

Early life and education

Alcenya McElwain was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, the daughter of William McElwain.[1] She was educated at the Minneapolis School of Business. She later studied marketing at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and earned a degree in political science from York University.

Career

Crowley worked in a law office, in an accountant's office, at the Metropolitan Children's Aid Society, and then as a secretary for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She later taught business for the Toronto District School Board, retiring in 1991.[2]

Crowley joined the Canadian Negro Women's Association (CANEWA),[3] later the Congress of Black Women of Canada. She served as vice-president from 1957 to 1958 and as president from 1959 to 1960. She chaired CANEWA's first Calypso Carnival, drawing on the cultures of the organization's Caribbean-born members.[2] She represented CANEWA at the funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.[4]

Personal life

She married a Canadian podiatrist, William Richard "Buddy" Crowley, in 1951, and moved to Toronto with him.[2]

Crowley was widowed when her husband died in 1963;[5] she died in Credit Valley Hospital in 2010, at the age of 84.[6]

References

  1. ^ "Alcenya McElwain from Ward 12 St. Paul in 1940 Census District 90-294". 1940 US Census. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  2. ^ a b c Hill, Lawrence (1996). Women of Vision: The Story of the Canadian Negro Women's Association, 1951–1976. Dundurn. pp. 35–36. ISBN 1895642183.
  3. ^ Wane, Njoki Nathani; Deliovsky, Katerina; Lawson, Erica (2002). Back to the Drawing Board: African-Canadian Feminisms. Canadian Scholars’ Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-894549-17-2.
  4. ^ "African Canadian Anti-Discrimination Activism and the Transnational Civil Rights Movement, 1945–1965". Journal of the Canadian Historical Association. 24 (3): 386–424. 2013.
  5. ^ "Obituaries". The Windsor Star. 1963-03-29. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-06-02 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Alcenya Crowley-Morrow". Toronto Star. September 15, 2010.