Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke of Sunday morning worship service as the most segregated time of the week.
While a college student in the 1950s, Gloria America Reeves Poe led an effort to bridge that religious racial divide.
In 1952, she entered Fisk University at age 16 after becoming one of the first African-American students to receive a Ford Foundation Early Entrants Scholarship.
Described as quiet, humble and deeply religious, friends and family said Poe was a liberal biblical thinker. She opposed the death penalty and was staunchly pro-choice and pro-gay marriage.
“Gloria took her spiritual walk more seriously than anyone I know,” said her friend Sharron Strickland White of Atlanta. “She was a Bible scholar who took time to study the word. She would help anyone in need. When the saints go marching in, Gloria will be leading the line. She was an unwavering, faithful follower of Christ.”
Poe of Atlanta died of complications from esophagitis on July 22. She was 79. Her funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in southwest Atlanta.
The Chattanooga native was born on Sept. 13, 1935, the younger of two children. As a teenager, she had an interest in the intersection of religion and social justice and forged her own religious path.
Once at Fisk, Poe majored in biology and became involved with campus Christian causes.
While serving as co-chairwoman of the Fisk Christian Association with a white transfer student from Illinois, the two advocated for racial integration of religious institutions. When King visited Fisk to speak to the association, Poe introduced the young pastor and civil rights leader to the audience.
In the summer of 1957, she met aspiring medical student Booker T. Poe while working on her teacher certification. They got married two years later.
She moved back home to Chattanooga to teach third grade while her husband finished his studies at Meharry Medical School in Nashville.
In 1969, the couple and their two children moved to Atlanta. Her husband opened a pediatric practice, and she focused on the family and became active in church, school and community organizations. She volunteered for several years at the Emmaus House Poverty Rights Office and served as secretary of the Auxiliary to the Atlanta Medical Association.
In 1976, she resumed her teaching career and taught biology at Therrell High School in Atlanta for 10 years.
In 1977, she earned a master’s degree from Georgia State University and later worked as a counselor in Atlanta elementary and middle schools until her retirement in 1997.
A devout Episcopalian, Poe taught Bible classes and served in several leadership positions at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, including Sunday School superintendent and senior warden. In 2012, St. Paul named her a pillar of the church for her service. The church also dedicated the Hodges-Chivers-Poe Bible Class in her honor.
She also was active in a neighborhood Bible study group. When the women met in each other’s home, Poe kept the discussion on Bible principles, not people.
“She was not a gossiper. That’s one of the things I admired the most about her,” White said. “Even though she was the wife of a prominent pediatrician, she believed experiences were more important than material things. She was unpretentious and never haughty or arrogant.”
Poe will be remembered for her devotion to her family, her students and to God, her husband said.
“She was a great wife and mother, and she loved being involved with her church,” he said. “She was proud of the children she taught and her work to promote religious integration.”
In addition to her husband, Poe is survived by her daughter Janita Lorraine Poe of Atlanta; son Brian David Poe of Fairburn and two granddaughters.
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