Layle Lane (November 27, 1893 – February 2, 1976) was an American educator and civil rights activist.

Life

Lane was born in

Marietta, Georgia Marietta is a city in and the county seat of Cobb County, Georgia, United States. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 60,972. The 2019 estimate was 60,867, making it one of Atlanta's largest suburbs. Marietta is the fourth largest ...

in 1893 to Reverend Calvin Lane and Alice Virginia Clark Lane. She was their fourth child. Her father was a Congregationalist minister and her mother was a teacher. Her family left Georgia after her father was threatened to be lynched. The family resettled in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Division and the state ...

, and three years later in

Vineland, New Jersey Vineland is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 60,780. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 61, ...

. In Vineland, Lane attended

Vineland High School Vineland High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Vineland, in Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as part of the Vineland Public Schools. The now reuni ...

, where she was the first black graduate of the school. Lane never married. In 1976, she died in

Cuernavaca, Mexico Cuernavaca (; nci-IPA, Cuauhnāhuac, kʷawˈnaːwak "near the woods", ) is the capital and largest city of the state of Morelos in Mexico. The city is located around a 90-minute drive south of Mexico City using the Federal Highway 95D. The na ...

Education

Lane graduated from

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

in 1916. After being unable to receive a job as a teacher in a New York public school, she returned to school earned a second undergraduate degree at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

. She received her master's degree from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

Career and activism

Lane became a high school teacher, teaching social studies in a New York high school. Lane was heavily involved in activism throughout her life, and participated in many protests for African American rights and workers' rights. She became an early member of the Teachers Union, and later the Teachers Guild. She served on the executive board of the Teacher's Guild. Lane was elected the first black female

American Federation of Teachers The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) is the second largest teacher's labor union in America (the largest being the National Education Association). The union was founded in Chicago. John Dewey and Margaret Haley were founders. About 60 p ...

vice president. She ran five times as a candidate in the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of t ...

for public office. Three of those times were for Congress. Lane served on the National Committee for Rural Schools. She helped to plan and organize the

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rig ...

in 1941. Lane ran a summer camp on her Pennsylvania farm for impoverished black children from the inner-city.

References

External links

The Layle Lane Papers at the New York Public Library

A book about Lane, "La citadelle : Layle Lane and social activism in twentieth-century America," on WorldCat

An article about Lane in a 2000 issue of American Educator
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Layle 1893 births 1976 deaths Hunter College alumni People from Marietta, Georgia Columbia University alumni People from Vineland, New Jersey Vineland High School alumni Howard University alumni American Federation of Teachers people American civil rights activists American socialists African-American activists Activists from Georgia (U.S. state) Activists from New Jersey Educators from Georgia (U.S. state) Educators from New Jersey 20th-century American educators 20th-century American women educators Women civil rights activists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American educators