Leona Ford Washington
{{Short description|American activist}}
Leona Ford Washington (1928 – August 5, 2007) was a community activist in Texas and founder of the McCall Neighborhood Center in El Paso. She taught for 39 years in the El Paso Independent School District. Washington composed the song, "The City of El Paso," which was adopted as the city's official song in the 1980s.{{Cite web|url=http://digie.org/media/14041|title=Leona Ford Washington|date=7 November 2014|website=Digie|publisher=El Paso Museum of History|access-date=5 March 2016}}
Biography
Washington was born in El Paso, Texas.{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwaao|title=Washington, Leona Ford|last=Dailey|first=Maceo|date=13 June 2013|website=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=5 March 2016}} She grew up in Segundo Barrio, and went to Prairie View A&M College (now Prairie View A&M University). Washington taught for two years in Las Cruces, before she returned to El Paso where she started teaching at the "segregated Douglass School."
In 1983, Washington founded the McCall Neighborhood Center and served as the first executive director of the facility which served both African American and Mexican American communities in El Paso. Washington took over The Southwest Torch Newspaper, renaming it The Good Neighbor Interpreter.{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4CGpAgAAQBAJ&q=%22leona+washington%22+el+paso+-facebook+-sports&pg=PA176|title=The Harlem Renaissance in the American West: The New Negro's Western Experience|last1=Glasrud|first1=Bruce A.|last2=Wintz|first2=Cary D.|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|isbn=9781136649110|pages=176|chapter=The Black Renaissance in the Desert Southwest}} The Good Neighbor provided residents of El Paso news about the black community.
Legacy
A City of El Paso recreation center, located on East Missouri Avenue is named after Washington.{{Cite web|url=https://www.elpasotexas.gov/parks-and-recreation/recreation-centers/list-of-recreation-centers|title=Parks and Recreation|website=City of El Paso|access-date=5 March 2016}} A foundation to help high school graduates attend college was set up in her name.{{Cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/elpasotimes/obituary.aspx?pid=166191329|title=Leona Washington|date=August 2013|website=Legacy|access-date=5 March 2016}} Washington also donated, in 1991, her collection of over 800 historic photographs to the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).
References
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External links
- [http://digitalcommons.utep.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1778&context=interviews Interview] (1985)
- [http://mccallcenter.org McCall Neighborhood Center]
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Category:Activists from El Paso, Texas
Category:Prairie View A&M University alumni
Category:African-American activists
Category:American community activists
Category:Schoolteachers from Texas
Category:20th-century American women educators
Category:20th-century American educators
Category:20th-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American educators