English: Biography: An accomplished actress, orator and speech therapist, Constance Allen Thomas is a member of a prominent Seattle family. Her parents, Edward Alexander and Marjorie Marian Allen Pitter, were very involved in political and civil rights activities. She entered the University of Washington in 1935, where she was involved in theatrical productions both on campus and with the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theater. Graduatlng in 1939, she stayed another year to complete a degree in education and had to insist that the administration provide her equal opportunities to receive practice teaching assignments. In 1943, with no teaching appointments forthcoming, she moved to New York to work with the American Negro Theater; she also taught in Harlem for two years. Returning to Seattle in 1945 for a visit, she became ill and decided not to return to New York. After eleven years of trying to teach in Seattle public schools, she was hired for one semester as a substitute in speech therapy, but remained for 18 years until she became physically disabled. During this time she received additional training in working with the deaf and cerebral-palsied. Her numerous memberships have included the National Education Association, the Seattle Teachers Association, the Washington Speech and Hearing Association, NAACP, and the National Urban League. Several times she has been president of the Seattle chapter of Delta Sigma Theta. Mrs. Thomas has gathered material on the early Black settlers in the Northwest and on the development of Black communities in the state of Washington. She lectures frequently on topics in Black history and is assembling photographs, articles, and taped interviews with older members of the community.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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