"Vivian Carter Mason" February 10 1900- May 10 1982)

The daughter of a Methodist Minister, George Cook Carter, and Florence Williams Carter,a music teacher,she credited her parents  with instilling values that inspired her social concerns.Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Vivian received her early education in the public schools of Auburn, New York, and graduated from the University of Chicago,where she studied political economy and social welfare.She later pursued graduate course work at Fordham University and at New York University.While a student at the University of Chicago,Vivian Carter met her future husband,William T. Mason, a native of Trinidad,West Indies.They married in Brooklyn, New York,where Vivian Carter Mason Vivian worked as a YouNG Christian's Association (YWCA) program director.Their only, child,William T. Mason., was born in 1926 in Norfolk, Virginia, where his father established a lucrative real estate and insurance business.Unwilling to place her son in poorly equipped schools in segregated Norfolk, she moved with her son to New York City in 1931. In New York, she worked her way  through the ranks to establish herself professionally as the first black woman administrator in the city's Department of  Welfare.She also gained prominence in a number of local and national organizations. A member of the NAACP, Vivian sat on the national board of the YWCA on the executive board of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW).She also founded the Committee of 100 Women, an organization that sent poor New York City children to summer camp.In the mid-1940s she returned to Norfolk, where she continued to devote herself to social and political reform. Vivian represented the NCWN at the inaugural meeting of the International Women's Democratic Federation (IWDF) and as vice president of its American affiliate, the Congress of American Women. From 1949 to 1953, she served as president of the Norfolk chapter of the NCNW and founded the Norfolk Women's Council for Interracial Cooperation. In 1953, she was elected to the first of two terms as president of the NCNW. During her term, of office, she steered the council through the tumultuous years following the Supreme Court's historic ruling in Brown v,Board of Education. As the organization's leader, she emphasized interracial coalition building and support for grassroots efforts to bring about racial justice. Following her tenure as NCNW president,Vivian turned her attention again to local politics.She urged women to become involved."We have to educate women to realize that they have to right share in the legislative "process," she said. She challenged women not only to vote but also to run for office themselves. As she put it,"any governing body is better for having women on it." She led the way. In 1968, Vivian was the only black woman on Virginia's Democratic central committee.