Ramona Edelin was an academic and civil rights activist who helped bring the term African American into widespread use.
- Died: February 19, 2024 (Who else died on February 19?)
- Details of death: Died of cancer at the age of 78.
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Ramona Edelin’s legacy
Born in Los Angeles, Edelin spent much of her childhood moving around with her family, living in Georgia, Illinois, and Massachusetts. She earned her bachelor’s from Fisk University, a master’s from the University of East Anglia, and a doctorate from Boston University.
Edelin went into academics after school, teaching at several facilities, including the University of Maryland and Emerson College, before landing at Northeastern University in 1972. There, she created the school’s first African American Studies program and is credited with introducing the term “African American” to the academic community. It would be over a decade before the term became regularly used outside academic circles, with such leaders as Jesse Jackson helping to popularize the term.
In 1977, Edelin began working for the National Urban Coalition. There, she created leadership programs to assist Black youth, including the M. Carl Holman Leadership Development Institute and the Executive Leadership Program. She was appointed to the Presidential Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in 1998 by President Bill Clinton. She was also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation for over a decade.
Edelin was once recognized by Ebony as one of the 100 Most Influential Black Americans. Her honors include the IBM Community Executive Program Award, the Southern Christian Leadership Award for Progressive Leadership, and others. She is the author of “We the Village: Achieving our Collective Greatness Now.”
On why Edelin used the term “African American”
“I consider myself a black woman, but African-American just sounds better to me. African-American is just more descriptive of what we are. No one is really black, like the color black.”—from an April 1990 interview for the Los Angeles Times
Tributes to Ramona Edelin
Full obituary: The Washington Post
