‘Trailblazers’ named to Hall of Fame

Virginia Foster Durr, an advocate for civil rights, and Mary Celesta Weatherly, an advocate for literacy, were inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame March 9. 
   
Durr (1903–1999) worked with first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to abolish the poll tax and with Rosa Parks and others in Montgomery to advance the cause of civil rights. The Atlanta Constitution called her a true moral authority and the “white matron” of the civil rights movement.  Durr’s story is told in her autobiography, “Outside the Magic Circle.” 
   
Former President Bill Clinton remarked at the time of Durr’s death that “her courage, outspokenness and steely conviction in the earliest days of the civil rights movement helped change this nation forever.”
   
Weatherly (1890–1976) founded the DeKalb County Library in 1930 and was a strong proponent of literacy, education, volunteerism and the preservation of history in the Fort Payne area. She served on the Fort Payne City Board of Education and organized the first literacy school in the area in the late 1950s.  
   
Active in First Baptist Church, Fort Payne, she taught Sunday School, Royal Ambassadors, served as president of the Woman’s Missionary Union and was on the church’s pulpit committee. She also helped the church establish two mission churches.  
    
The mother of three children, Weatherly was named Woman of the Year by the Fort Payne Chamber of Commerce in 1951 and Alabama’s Mother of the Year in 1962. The same year she was named the American Mother of the Year — the only Alabamian to receive this national recognition to date.
   
Keynote speaker Julian Bond said it was appropriate to honor these “daughters of Alabama” who were “courageous trailblazers.”
   
“These two women were united by gender and cause,” Bond said. “They demonstrated strength of character, perseverance and courage. We honor them by emulating them in the future.” 
   
Bond has served as chairman of the board of the NAACP, the oldest and largest civil rights organization in the United States, since 1998. 
   
He is a Distinguished Professor at American University in Washington, and a professor of history at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. He holds 21 honorary degrees. 
   
The Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame was founded in 1970 and is housed in the A. Howard Bean Hall on the campus of Judson College in Marion.  
   
The hall of fame board of directors selects two women each year native to or closely identified with Alabama for induction. Nominations are received until Aug. 1.  
   
For more information, call 334-683-5167 or visit www.awhf.org. (JC)