Sara Parsons, 99: trailblazing education official

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By J.E. Geshwiler

For the AJC

Sara Mitchell Parsons felt a philosophical awakening in the 1950s as her three children neared adulthood. Facing the prospect of becoming an empty-nest housewife busying herself with shopping and social engagements, she chose instead to get serious.

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Sara Parsons wrote this book based on her work in the civil rights struggle.

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She joined the League of Women Voters, plunging into its briefings on important issues of the day and ascending the officer ladder to become president. With pressure building to desegregate Atlanta's schools after the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling, she focused on education policymaking. In 1961, she surprised herself and everyone she knew by offering herself as a candidate for Atlanta's School Board -- and she won.

All this and more she recounted in her memoir, titled "From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights," published in 2000 by the University of Alabama Press.

Reviewing the book for Southern Scribe, an online magazine, Tia Blassingame wrote that Mrs. Parsons' account of her life in Atlanta during the civil rights era adds a refreshing perspective on a familiar tale.

Mrs. Parsons' voice is "the voice of the everywoman ... on a journey of self," Ms. Blassingame said. "Many might say Mrs. Parsons was not an activist, but in her own way she chiseled a hole in her lily-white, isolated world of PTAs, Sunday school and bridge games. Instead of living her cozy life, she chose to work for equality of education."

David J. Garrow, a University of Cambridge historian and author of the forward to Mrs. Parsons' book, said her defiance of the era's gender norms, when wives were expected to parrot their husbands' political views, was as notable as her opposition to segregation.

"Ms. Sara's willingness to speak forthrightly for racial equality put her well ahead of such better-known figures counseling compliance with the law of the land as Constitution editor Ralph McGill. Her 1961 and 1965 election victories are the earliest important harbinger of women emerging as significant politicians in Atlanta," he said.

"Sara was an inspiration to the rest of us housewives," said a friend of 70 years, Nancy Heflin of Decatur. "She became so knowledgeable on so many difficult issues."

Another friend, the Rev. Austin Ford of Atlanta, said, "The community should feel indebted to Sara for her leadership. She often was the lone voice on the school board addressing the needs of the city's poor children, black and white."

After taking office in January 1962, she fulfilled a campaign vow by inspecting conditions for learning in all 126 elementary schools and 28 high schools in Atlanta. She concluded the "separate but equal" claim for white and black schools was a sham. Black schools, she found, were invariably more rundown, poorly supplied and overcrowded than white schools.

After completing the school inspections, she conferred often with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. about the school system's pressing needs. She became a frequent visitor to Ebenezer Baptist Church to hear his sermons and a longtime friend of his wife, Coretta King, even cutting red tape to enable two of the Kings' older children to enter the well-regarded Spring Street School.

Sara Mitchell Parsons, 99, of Decatur, died Tuesday at Hospice Atlanta of complications after suffering a broken hip. Her funeral is 2 p.m. Sunday at H.M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill.

Her emergence as a public figure coincided with a widening philosophical gulf between her and her first husband, Ray Mitchell, and the two were divorced in 1966. Two years later, she met Tom Parsons, a California educator, at a schools conference and the two were wed months afterward.

A California resident from 1969 to 1987, she got involved politically once again and became the first woman ever elected to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors. As in Atlanta, she was keen to tackle education issues, her husband said.

"She also had become a serious environmentalist, so much so that some folks called her Sierra Sara, even though she never did belong to the Sierra Club," Mr. Parsons said.

From the time the Parsonses moved back to Georgia and settled at Clairmont Place, a Decatur seniors community, the two of them were regular riders of its bus service, whisking them to symphony and theater performances and luncheon and dinner outings.

Lynn Mayer of Atlanta, activities director at Clairmont Place, said Mrs. Parsons was a popular resident.

"All her neighbors are sad," she said, "They so hoped Sara would live to be 100."

Also surviving are a daughter, Susan Rogers of Lafayette; two sons, Perry Mitchell of Atlanta and Ray Mitchell of Camilla; a stepdaughter, Pam Martin of Orlinda, Calif.; a stepson, Tim Parsons of Tahoe, Nev.; a sister, Linda Perry of Decatur; eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.