Jewel Freeman Graham

Precious Jewel Freeman[3][4] was born on May 3, 1925 in Springfield, Ohio, to Robert Lee and Lulabelle Freeman.[5] She grew up in a racially segregated city.[6]

She attended Fisk University on a scholarship, earning a bachelor's degree in sociology and psychology in 1946.[4][7][8] She pursued graduate studies in sociology at Howard University from 1946 to 1948,[3][8] and in 1953 earned her master's degree in social service administration from Case Western Reserve University.[4]

Graham began her association with the YWCA as a teenager in 1939, joining the colored division of the YWCA Girl Reserves in Springfield.[6] After earning her undergraduate degree, she served as associate director of the YWCA teen program department in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 1947 to 1950.[3] From 1953 to 1956, she was the metropolitan teenage program coordinator in Detroit.[3]

She was a member of the board of directors of the YWCA USA from 1970 to 1989. She served as vice-president from 1973 to 1979 and was elected president of the YWCA USA in 1979, the second black woman to fill that post.[9][10] She served as national president for two three-year terms.[11]

Graham joined the executive committee of the World YWCA in 1975.[6] She was elected president of the World YWCA in 1987, being the second black woman in that post,[6] and served a five-year term until 1991.[2][7]

Antioch College

Graham joined the administrative faculty at Antioch College in 1964[12] and directed the Program for Interracial Education from 1965 to 1969.[3] She later became a social work faculty advisor and, in 1969, obtained a grant from the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare to inaugurate the social work undergraduate program at the College.[6][7] She served as assistant professor of social welfare and then full professor from 1969 to 1986, when she retired.[7]

Seeing the need to add understanding of the legal system to social work studies,[6] Graham returned to university in the 1970s and earned a Juris Doctor at the University of Dayton at the age of 50. After passing the Ohio bar, she helped develop a curriculum at Antioch that combined social work and legal studies.[6]

Graham was a charter member of the National Association of Social Workers and a life member of the National Council of Negro Women. She was a member of the board of directors of Antioch College from 1994 to 1996.

Graham was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame in 1988.[2] She was also named to the Greene County Women's Hall of Fame in 1982. In 1987 she was named one of the Ten Top Women by the Dayton Daily News.[13] In 1985 the Ohio House of Representatives passed a resolution to honor her for her leadership in the YWCA.[14] The Miami Valley Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers named her Social Worker of the Year in 1975.[9]

She has been listed in numerous Who's Who directories, including The Who's Who of Women,[3] Who's Who in America,[15] Who's Who in Politics,[2] Outstanding Educators of America,[2] Who's Who Among Black Americans (1981[16] and 1985[4]), Who's Who in Religion,[17] Who's Who of American Women,[18] and Who's Who Among African Americans (1997,[19] 2000,[5] 2008[20]).

In 1991 she was awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters by the Meadville Lombard Theological School.[1]

She married Paul Nathaniel Graham, a rubber chemist, in 1953.[3][21] They had two sons.[1] In 1956 they moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where Paul Graham was employed at Vernay Laboratories.[6] In 1962 Paul Graham was involved in a racial segregation issue with a local barber who refused to cut his hair and who was subsequently served with a cease and desist order.[22]

In 2002 she suffered a heart attack, from which she recovered.[6] She wrote a memoir, The Life of My Times, 1925–2000.[7] She died at her home on November 30, 2015.[1]

• Royster, Jacqueline Jones (2003). Profiles of Ohio Women, 1803-2003. Ohio University Press. ISBN 0821415085.