Amanda Belle Elzy (died 2004) was a pioneering African-American educator. She graduated from Rust High School in 1929 and from

Rust College Rust College is a private historically black college in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Founded in 1866, it is the second-oldest private college in the state. Affiliated with the United Methodist Church, it is one of ten historically black colleges ...

in 1934. She worked as Supervisor of Negro Schools in

Leflore County, Mississippi Leflore County is a county located in the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census, the population was 28,339. The county seat is Greenwood. The county is named for Choctaw leader Greenwood LeFlore, who signed a treaty to cede his pe ...

, then became the first black assistant superintendent in the county, and was one of the founders of

Mississippi Valley State University Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU, The Valley or Valley) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically black university in Mississippi Valley State, Mississippi, adjacent to Itta Bena, Mississ ...

in the 1940s. Her sister was the singer Ruby Elzy, and their mother Emma Elzy was a teacher and prominent member of the Methodist church, in whose memory the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church presents an annual Emma K. Elzy award. Emma died in 1985, aged 98. Amanda Elzy died in 2004. Amanda Elzy High School in the Greenwood-Leflore Consolidated School District was named in her honor in 1959.

References

2004 deaths Date of birth missing Rust College alumni 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American educators 20th-century American educators Educators from Mississippi People from Leflore County, Mississippi Mississippi Valley State University people 20th-century American women educators 21st-century African-American educators 21st-century African-American women {{US-edu-bio-stub