Edna attended Straight Elementary & High School where she earned a teaching certificate.In 1932 she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master's degree in 1941 from Xavier University.
Atan early age,she developed a keen interest in sports,especially tennis.In the 1920s,she held the women's tennis championship title and was credited with victories over most of the best men players in the city.In August,1926,the St.Kathrine Tennis Club of New Orleans announced that Miss Edna Cordier and Mr.W.H.Mitchell would represent their organization in the national tournament to be held in St.Louis the following month.
Edna became classroom teacher in Orleans Parish,a position she would hold for the next the next fortysix years before retiring in 1964.During her career she taught in a total of six schools in both Algiers and New Orleans,spending her last teaching days at at Rivers Frederick Jr. High.Miss Cordier was an eyewitness to the vast inequalities that existed in the educational system in New Orleans during her years as a classroom.Not only were teachers of color paid less than their white counterparts with the same education and experiences,but their working conditions were much worse.(%50 more in some cases),and worked in dilapidated,unsafe buildings with inadequate supplies and hand-me-down textbooks once used by white students.
During the Depression of the 1930s,all teachers took massive paid cuts but the school promised to restore their pay in 1937 but only to white teachers.Edna Cordier and Veronica B.Hill,along with a few other colleagues,demanded that the board live up to its promise that all teachers would be paid and not just white teachers.After the board refused to do so,these teachers organized a group known as the New Orleans League of Classroom Teachers,local # 527 of the ATF.Edna was elected its first president and in 1940 they filed a suit against the school board for equalization of pay.Four years later (1944) a
court order demanded the school board to equalize all salaries.
By 1947,Edna was elected financial secretary of the union and continued in this capacity until her retirement in 1964.The League continued to grow within a mere six months was credited with bringing 74% of African American teachers into the ARF.This was a greater percentage of the teaching force than the local wite group of the ATF ever succeeded in organizing.The struggle was not an easy one since members had to convince teachers that they would not lose their jobs if they joined and that professional people (such as teachers) needed the protection of labor unions.Edna and her colleagues were called "radicals" by many,but African American teachers soon realized that they had little to lose and much to gain through association with a labor union.This organization later merged with Orleans Educator's Association to form the United Teachers of New Orleans.
Throughout her career,Edna was highly respected by her peers and actively involved in many community groups,including the NAACP Education Committee,Urban League of New Orleans,Xavier University Alumni Association,and the Catholic Commission on Human Rights.In 1964,she was honored by the Orleans Parish School Board for " A Lifetime devoted to the children and Future of New Orleans.
Atan early age,she developed a keen interest in sports,especially tennis.In the 1920s,she held the women's tennis championship title and was credited with victories over most of the best men players in the city.In August,1926,the St.Kathrine Tennis Club of New Orleans announced that Miss Edna Cordier and Mr.W.H.Mitchell would represent their organization in the national tournament to be held in St.Louis the following month.
Edna became classroom teacher in Orleans Parish,a position she would hold for the next the next fortysix years before retiring in 1964.During her career she taught in a total of six schools in both Algiers and New Orleans,spending her last teaching days at at Rivers Frederick Jr. High.Miss Cordier was an eyewitness to the vast inequalities that existed in the educational system in New Orleans during her years as a classroom.Not only were teachers of color paid less than their white counterparts with the same education and experiences,but their working conditions were much worse.(%50 more in some cases),and worked in dilapidated,unsafe buildings with inadequate supplies and hand-me-down textbooks once used by white students.
During the Depression of the 1930s,all teachers took massive paid cuts but the school promised to restore their pay in 1937 but only to white teachers.Edna Cordier and Veronica B.Hill,along with a few other colleagues,demanded that the board live up to its promise that all teachers would be paid and not just white teachers.After the board refused to do so,these teachers organized a group known as the New Orleans League of Classroom Teachers,local # 527 of the ATF.Edna was elected its first president and in 1940 they filed a suit against the school board for equalization of pay.Four years later (1944) a
court order demanded the school board to equalize all salaries.
By 1947,Edna was elected financial secretary of the union and continued in this capacity until her retirement in 1964.The League continued to grow within a mere six months was credited with bringing 74% of African American teachers into the ARF.This was a greater percentage of the teaching force than the local wite group of the ATF ever succeeded in organizing.The struggle was not an easy one since members had to convince teachers that they would not lose their jobs if they joined and that professional people (such as teachers) needed the protection of labor unions.Edna and her colleagues were called "radicals" by many,but African American teachers soon realized that they had little to lose and much to gain through association with a labor union.This organization later merged with Orleans Educator's Association to form the United Teachers of New Orleans.
Throughout her career,Edna was highly respected by her peers and actively involved in many community groups,including the NAACP Education Committee,Urban League of New Orleans,Xavier University Alumni Association,and the Catholic Commission on Human Rights.In 1964,she was honored by the Orleans Parish School Board for " A Lifetime devoted to the children and Future of New Orleans.
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