Lyda Moore Merrick

Lyda Vivian Moore was born on November 19, 1890, in her family's home in Durham, North Carolina in the Hayti neighborhood.{{Cite book |last=Hill-Saya |first=Blake |url= |title=Aaron McDuffie Moore: An African American Physician, Educator, and Founder of Durham's Black Wall Street |date=2020-03-02 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-5586-4 |language=en}} She was born into a prominent black family in North Carolina to Sarah McCotta "Cottie" S. Moore (née Dancy){{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jessie Carney |url= |title=Notable Black American Women |date=1992 |publisher=Gale Research |isbn=978-0-8103-4749-6 |language=en}} and Aaron McDuffie Moore.{{Cite journal |last1=Willie |first1=Charles V. |last2=Lane |first2=Jolene A. |date=2001 |title=The Role of Fathers in the Lives of Black Women of Achievement |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3132629 |journal=Phylon |volume=49 |issue=3/4 |pages=203–217 |doi=10.2307/3132629 |jstor=3132629 |issn=0031-8906}}{{cite book |title=Biographical Sketches of E. R. Merrick and Aaron McDuffie Moore (circa 1967 and undated) |publisher=North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company Archives, ca. 1885–2008 and undated, Box 31. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.}}{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Leslie |title=Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class and Black Community Development in Jim Crow South |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=2008 |location=Chapel Hill |pages=35, 118}}{{Cite web |title=Dr. Aaron McDuffie Moore: Establishing African American Rural Schools in North Carolina - Museum of Durham History |url=https://www.museumofdurhamhistory.org/blog/dr-aaron-mcduffie-moore-establishing-african-american-rural-schools-in-north-carolina/ |access-date=2024-02-19 |language=en-US}} A.M. Moore was a founder of the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, one of the oldest black-owned businesses in the United States, and Cottie Moore was a niece of prominent Black Republican John C. Dancy. Lyda was the elder of two daughters.

Moore attended Whitted School in Durham through the ninth grade, graduating as valedictorian. She then attended the Scotia Seminary, a Freedmen's school.{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Emily Herring |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCo3rUUcDsYC&dq=%22Lyda+Moore+Merrick%22&pg=PA69 |title=Hope and Dignity: Older Black Women of the South |date=September 1992 |publisher=Temple University Press |isbn=978-1-56639-017-0 |language=en |chapter=In This Dark World and Wide}} At eighteen, she matriculated at Fisk University, where she graduated magna cum laude in 1911 with a degree in music.{{Cite news |date=February 15, 1987 |title=Lyda Moore Merrick,96, Founder Of A Magazine For The Blind |url=https://durhamcountylibrary.org/exhibits/slw/documents/Box10LydaMArticle.pdf |work=Durham Morning Herald}} Moore then attended Columbia University, studying art.

In 1916, Moore married Ed Merrick, son of John Merrick, joining the two prominent families in what a local newspaper called "a social event of state-wide importance." Their wedding was attended by W. E. B. Du Bois and Charlotte Hawkins Brown, and many prominent community members. They had two daughters.

Merrick was very involved in her community. In August 1933, she sat on a six-member committee, including Charles Clinton Spaulding, and Louis Austin lobbied the all-white Durham school board on behalf of Black school needs.{{Cite book |last=Gershenhorn |first=Jerry |url= |title=Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle |date=2018-02-06 |publisher=UNC Press Books |isbn=978-1-4696-3877-5 |language=en}}

Merrick became the board chair for the Durham Colored Library, Inc. in 1949. She also sat on the Lincoln Hospital Board of Trustees.

Merrick was an accomplished portraitist.{{Cite book |last=Vann |first=Andre D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88kmDwAAQBAJ&dq=lyda+merrick&pg=PA6 |title=African Americans of Durham County |date=2017 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=978-1-4671-2646-5 |pages=108 |language=en}} Several of her works are displayed in buildings named for their subjects. She was also a pianist. She gave private piano lessons and played the organ at St. Joseph's African Methodist Episcopal Church.{{Cite web |last=McDonald |first=Thomasi |date=2023-05-05 |title=Durham's Hayti Heritage Center Will Examine Black Women's Activism During Apartheid and Jim Crow |url=http://indyweek.com/news/durham/durhams-hayti-heritage-center-will-examine-black-womens-activism-during-apartheid-and-jim-crow/ |access-date=2024-02-19 |website=INDY Week |language=en-US}}

Merrick was friends with Madie Hall Xuma. Their friendship linked the Durham Black community with South African community, joining them in against Jim Crow and apartheid. Merrick raised money in Durham to support Xuma's work in South Africa.

In 1922 the Moore family temporarily took care of a baby, John Carter Washington.{{Cite book |last=Johnson |first=Juanita |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0MYvEAAAQBAJ&dq=lyda+merrick&pg=PT9 |title=The Audacity Code: Coloring in Black Outside the Lines |date=2021-05-21 |publisher=Hybrid Global Publishing |isbn=978-1-7358014-1-4 |language=en}}{{Citation |last=Leonardo |first=Dália |title=Merrick, Lyda Vivian Moore |date=2012-09-30 |work=African American Studies Center |url=https://oxfordaasc.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.001.0001/acref-9780195301731-e-39291 |access-date=2024-02-19 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.39291 |isbn=978-0-19-530173-1}} Washington had been born without eyes and "ears that barely worked." In 1949, Merrick created a library club and resource center at the Durham Colored Library, the Corner for the Blind.{{Cite web |title=Elna Spaulding, Lyda Moore Merrick, and Mary D. B. T. Semans |url=http://andjusticeforall.dconc.gov/gallery_images/elna-spaulding-lyda-moore-merrick-and-mary-d-b-t-semans/ |access-date=2024-02-19 |website=And Justice for All: Durham County Courthouse Art Wall}} The program was successful, and membership grew. However, the Stanford Warren Library did not have sufficient materials for the blind of interest to the Black community.{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Jean Bradley |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4gyxDsR0t7QC&dq=lyda+merrick&pg=PR9 |title=Durham County: A History of Durham County, North Carolina |date=2011-05-09 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-4983-9 |language=en}} Merrick and Washington founded The Negro Braille Magazine in 1952. This publication was the first to cater to the needs and interests of blind African Americans. The magazine included excerpts from leading Black periodicals, selected by Merrick, translated into Braille. The magazine was published by the Durham Colored Library, Inc. (now the Stanford Warren Library), which had been founded by her father. She served as its editor for eighteen years. During this time, she also endeavored to find funding for the magazine, often taking on the expense herself rather than charging a subscription fee from the often in-need readers. At its height, the magazine reached international circulation. When Merrick stepped down as its editor in 1971, the Stanford Warren Library trustees took it over, publishing it semi-annually. Around 1980, the periodical was renamed The Merrick/Washington Magazine for the Blind.

Merrick died on February 14, 1987. She is buried with the Moore family at the Beechwood Cemetery.

• The Hayti Heritage Center contains the Lyda Moore Merrick gallery featuring African American artists.
• 1969: Artra Achievement Award
• 1969: Links, Inc., of Durham
• 1970: Honorary membership in Delta Sigma Theta
• 1977: Honorary membership in the North Carolina Library Association
• 1977: Daughters of Dorcas and Sons Quilting Guild Plaque: the Negro Braille Magazine Plaque
• 1979: Mother of the Year, Durham area Merchant's Association
• 1981: Bahai Community of Durham Humanitarian Award
• 1982: Community Recognition Award, Daughters of Isis of Zafa Court No. 41

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Category:1890 births

Category:1987 deaths

Category:Magazine editors

Category:20th-century African-American women writers

Category:Women magazine editors

Category:American disability rights activists

Category:American women activists

Category:People from Durham, North Carolina

Category:Fisk University alumni

Category:20th-century American women writers

Category:20th-century American writers

Category:20th-century African-American writers