Sweet, Dovie Davis

Dovie Sweet (ca. 1910- ), a primary teacher in the Cleveland Public Schools, became well-known throughout the African American community in for her writing and organizational work. She was born and educated in Florida, attending Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and then working in education in her home state for twenty years. She married Sherman Sweet in 1938, and they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1943 where she graduated from Western Reserve University with a Master's Degree in Secondary Education in 1947 and a Master's Degree in Elementary Education in 1956. She taught in the Cleveland Public Schools from 1950 to 1976. Upon retirement, she wrote Red Light, Green Light, a children's book about Garrett Morgan, an African American Clevelander known for such inventions as the stoplight. The work was published by Exposition Press in 1978. Sweet's community activities included membership in the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Club (NANBPWC), Florida Club, National Council of Negro Women, Delta Sigma Theta Club, and St. John's African Methodist Episcopal (A. M. E.) Church. She helped organize the Glenville Area Community Council, Parkgate Avenue Street Club, East 111th Street Club, and the Retired Teachers' Union. She was a staunch supporter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), working with the Cleveland Branch as vice-president from 1963 to 1970 and heading numerous successful membership campaigns. She chaired the first Freedom Fund Dinner, coordinated the Cleveland branch's participation in the march on Washington, and surveyed the Cleveland area for cases of discrimination. She and husband Sherman retired to Bartow, Florida, in 1982.

From the guide to the Dovie Davis Sweet Papers, 1935-1982, (Western Reserve Historical Society)

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