"Elizabeth Ross Haynes" ( July 30,1883-October 26,1953)

Was a pioneering analyst of African American domestic and women workers,a writer and leader in the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA),African American Women's Clubs,and the Democratic party.Born in Lowndess County,Alabama,to Henry & Mary Carnes Ross,prosperous farmers and freepersons,Elizabeth was valedictorian of the State Normal Scholl in Montgomery,received a B.A. from Fisk University in 1903,and an M.A.in sociology from Columbia University in 1923.She married George E.Hayes,a sociologist and cofounder of the National Urban League,in 1910.Their interest in racial uplift,women's rights and survey research were closely matched.They had one child,George Haynes Jr.,in 1912 W.E.B. DuBois published her first book,Unsung Heroes,a collection of inspirational biographies for African American children.Elizabeth was persuasive advocate of job training and improved social services for African American urban women workers,and was a skilled organizer with a pragmatic approach to improving racial relations.She accepted segregated social agencies if African American professionals were hired to staff them.
This stance occasionally placed her at odds with more militant leaders,it also made Elizabeth a vital link between white * African American reform groups such as the YWCA and the National Associations of Colored Women (NACW).From 1908-1910,Elizabeth was the YWCA's new Council on Colored work in 1922,she served as the first African American on its national League of Republican Colored women,she spoke against the racist tatics used by the GOP against Al Smith in the 1928 president campaign.Elizabeth was among the first African American women leaders in the NACW to become co-leader of Harlem's Twenty-first Assembly District in 1935,was a member of the colored division of the national Democratic speakers'bureau by 1936,and in 1937 was the first woman appointed to the State Temporary Comission on the Condition of the Urban Colored Population.In 1952,at the age sixty-nine,Elizabeth finished The Black Boy of Atlanta,biography of Major Richard Wright,college president and banker.Elizabeth died in New York.