"Helen Elsie Austin" (1908-2004)

Was an attorney US Foreign Service ,and member Bah ha i National Spiritual Assembles admitted to the practice of law in the U.S.She was born in Alabama.Both of her parents worked at Tuskegee University;her father served as Commandant of Men.When the family moved to Ohio,her mother worked at Stowe School.Helen graduated from Walnut Hills High School,Cincinnati,Ohio,in 1924.Helen is known to have interrupted a class on extended description of African Americans after correcting a textbook.She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1and928 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1930 from the University of Cincinnati,becoming the first African American woman to graduate from the UC Law School as well as the 8th president of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.Helen was on staff of the Rocky Mountain Law Review and of the center Cincinnati Law Review.In 1938 she received a Doctor of Laws degree from Wilberforce University.She lived in Silver Spring,Maryland before moving to San Antonio,Texas in June 2004.Helen died of congestive heart failure.Public memorial services were held at the Baha House of Worship in the U.S. and in Uganda.Helen was the first African American to serve as Assistant Attorney General in Ohio (1937-38) and became legal advisor to the District of Columbia government in 1939.As a US Foreign Service Officer from 1960-1970,she served as a Cultural attache with the United States information Agency in Lagos,Nigeria,and later in Nairobi,Kenya.She retired from the Foreign Service in 1970.Helen joined the baha in 1934 and met Hands of the Cause Dorothy Beecher Baker and Louis George Gregory.She was elected to its U.S. governing body in 1944.After primage to Haifa,Austin pioneered to Monoroco in 1953,gaining status as a Knight of Baha u llah.While teaching at the American School of Tangier in Monroco (1954-57),she helped establish Baha i communities in northern & western Africa.In 1955 Helen wrote Above All Barriers:The Story of Louis G. Gregory reprinted in 1964,1976.Helen was elected to the regional National Spiritual Assembly of North West Africa and helped the first Universal House of Justice in 1963.Ultimmately Helen serve on Local Spirital Assembles in five countries:U.S. Nigeria,Kenya,and the Bahamas also served as one of the first members of the Auxiliary Board,assisting the hand of the Cause Musa Banani.In 1958 she was appointed executive director of the National Women's Council.In 1975 Helen chaired the Baha i delegation to the International Women's Conference in Mexico City.In 1982 Helen worked with the Phelps Stokes Fund in China inspecting schools,businesses and community services affecting education and opportunities for minorities.She receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Cincinnati in 1960.The same university names a scholarship in her honor in 2000.