Mallory, Mae, 1927-2007

Mae Mallory (June 9, 1927 – 2007) was an activist of the Civil Rights Movement[1][2] and a Black Power movement leader active in the 1950s and 1960s. She is best known as an advocate of school desegregation[3] and of black armed self-defense.[4] Mallory was born in Macon, Georgia, on June 9, 1927. She later went to live in New York City with her mother in 1939.

In 1956, Mallory was a founder and spokesperson of the "Harlem 9", a group of African-American mothers who protested the inferior and inadequate conditions in segregated New York City schools. Inspired by a report by Kenneth and Mamie Clark on inexperienced teachers, overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated conditions, and gerrymandering to promote segregation in New York, the group sought to transfer their children to integrated schools that offered higher quality resources.[3]

"Harlem 9" activism included lawsuits against the city and state, filed with the help of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). By 1958 it escalated to public protests and a 162-day boycott involving 10,000 parents. The boycott campaign did not win formal support from the NAACP, but was assisted by leaders such as Ella Baker and Adam Clayton Powell, and endorsed by African-American newspapers such as the Amsterdam News.[5] While the children were engaged in another boycott in 1960, the campaign established some of the first Freedom Schools of the civil rights movement to educate them.[3]

New York City retaliated against the mothers, trying and failing to prosecute them for negligence. In 1960, Mallory and the Harlem 9 won their lawsuit, and the Board of Education allowed them, and over a thousand other parents, to transfer their children to integrated schools. That year, the Board of Education announced a general policy of Open Enrollment, and thousands more black children transferred to integrated schools over the next five years. (Overall integration in the city was thwarted, however, by the practice of white flight.)[3][6]

She supported Robert F. Williams, the Monroe, North Carolina NAACP chapter leader, and author of Negroes with Guns,[7] During the Freedom Rides in August 1961, she worked with Williams in protecting Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activists who were demonstrating in Monroe. This led to armed confrontations with white supremacists and allegations of kidnapping a white couple.

She went to Ohio, and was supported by the Monroe Defense Committee, and the Workers World Party,[8] in her extradition and kidnapping trial. In 1961–65, she was jailed for kidnapping, but was later released after the North Carolina Supreme Court determined racial discrimination in the jury selection.[9][10] COINTELPRO tried to break up the support group Committee to Support the Monroe Defendants.[11]

She mentored Yuri Kochiyama.[12]

She was a friend of Madalyn Murray O'Hair.[13] On February 21, 1965, Mallory was present at the assassination of Malcolm X at the Audubon Ballroom. In April 1965, she was instrumental in a Times Square protest against the 1965 United States occupation of the Dominican Republic. On August 8, 1966, she spoke at an anti-Vietnam War rally.[4]

She was an organizer of the Sixth Pan-African Congress held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 1974.[14] In 1974, she lived in Mwanza, Tanzania.[15]

Her papers are held at the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University.[16]

Mae Mallory (June 9, 1927 - 2007)
Mae Mallory was a civil rights activist known for her support of armed self-defense and school integration. She was the founder of the “Harlem 9,” a group of nine Black mothers formed to protest the inferior conditions of schools in New York City during the 1950’s. Mallory argued that despite the ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education, the zoning policies of the NYC Board of Education essentially ensured that segregation in the city was still very much in place. Formed in 1956, the Harlem 9’s goal was “open transfer” for their children, which would allow them to attend integrated schools outside of their district that did not suffer from overcrowding, poor building conditions, and inexperienced teachers. The work of the Harlem 9 included legal action against the city and state of New York, boycotts, and public protests. Mae Mallory and the Harlem 9 eventually secured the right to transfer their children to integrated schools with a victory in the courts in 1960, which included the concession of the NYC Board of Education that they had indeed perpetuated “de facto” segregation in their boroughs.

Mae Mallory also supported numerous other civil rights initiatives, including work with Robert F. Williams and the NAACP during the Freedom Rides in 1961, when she hosted SNCC student riders who were participating in Monroe, North Carolina. During this time, Mallory was accused of kidnapping a white couple, despite having actually let the couple stay in her home to avoid any danger from armed protesters who had gathered in response to the Freedom Riders.

Fearful of retaliation from the KKK, Mallory fled from North Carolina to Cleveland, Ohio, where she was eventually captured after six weeks in hiding. While in prison, she worked to publicize her case, as well as shed light on the experiences of Black women in America and advocate for separatism, socialism and self defense through speeches, letters, and press releases. She was extradited back to North Carolina to stand trial for the kidnapping charge in 1964. The all-white jury sentenced her to 16-20 years in prison, but she was later exonerated in 1965 due to racial discrimination during the jury selection.

Mae Mallory continued her activism until her death in 2007. Throughout her life Mae Mallory consistently called for self-defense, liberation, and that Black people be masters of their own fate - militant forms of Black Power often associated with men. She participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War, the U.S. occupation of the Dominican Republic, and was a persistent advocate for self-defense and the voices of working-class black women in the fight for civil rights.