06/08/2026
🌈🩷💚 In honor of Pride Month, we at and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Edna Meade Colson (1888–1985) a barrier-breaking educator, suffragist, civil rights activist, LGBTQ+ icon, and proud Alpha Kappa Alpha Soror.
Colson was a champion for Black educators during Jim Crow, expanding graduate education when it was denied to African Americans in Virginia. She chaired the committee that launched Virginia State’s first graduate courses in 1937 and later led its School of Education.
Politically active, Colson was among the first Black women to register to vote after the 19th Amendment, a charter member and past president of AKA’s Delta Omega chapter, and the first Black woman in Virginia to become an NAACP life member.
Her lifelong partner was Amaza Lee Meredith (1895–1984), one of the first Black women architects. Meredith was also the founder of Virginia State’s Fine Arts department. Together they lived in Azurest South, designed by Meredith, now a National Historic Landmark.
👉🏾 Click on the link in our bio() to read the full article.
Shout out to and who gave them the idea to do this article.
