"Inez Baskin"(6-18-1916-June 30,2007)

Was an African American journalist and civil rights activist.Born in in Florala Alabama,she was the only child of parents who stressed the importance of education.She earned a degree in education from what is now Alabama State University.She became a licensed in social worker,and then earned a degree in divinity from Selma University.She was a church pianist for several congrations over the years and also taught ministers at theological schools and conventions.Inez implemented the first Head Start program in Montgomery and she also developed and implemented the first hot-lunch program serving low-income children.After briefly teaching,Inez rose from a position as a newspaper typist to write that documented some of the most tumultuous moments in thee nation's history of the Montgomery Advertiser.As a journalist,she was a reporter for the advertiser's "Negro News"section.The advertiser said that when the boycott was organized after Rosa Parks'arrestin 1955,Inez was hired to cover the event for jet magazine as well as for the American Negro Press."The importantance of what she did in helping create documentation of everything that was going on here when it was one of the most important cities anywhere can't be overstated,"said Ed Bridges, director of the state Department of Archives and History.As supporter of the boycott and a journalist,Inez took a seat right in front of Rev.Martin Luther King,Jr.,when Montgomery buses were finally desegregregated.In her later years, Inez goddaughter,Lawanda Mason Goodwine,Inez established the Willie Mae Goodwine & Inez Baskin Scholarship of Journalism at Edinboro University.With stering delivery and a blunt but sometimes humorous way of speaking,she Inez shared stories of the past with audiences of young people.Earlier in 2007 she gave a keynote address at Edinboro University Pennsylvania,where the scholarship was established in her honor.Inez died in Montgomery Alabama,after suffering an internal ailment and being to weak for surgery.