| Raised in Philadelphia and educated at what is now Cheyney University
of Pennsylvania, located in southeastern Pennsylvania, Eleanor Dickey
moved to Phoenix in 1947 to teach in the segregated Dunbar Elementary
School. While at Dunbar, she joined the Greater Phoenix Council for
Civic Unity, which worked to desegregate schools.
In 1949 she married Lincoln Ragsdale, a local mortician and
businessman, and the two became a powerful force for social change in
Phoenix. By 1953, the couple had one child when Eleanor discovered she
was pregnant with their second. At this time, they lived in a duplex at 1510 E. Jefferson Street in Phoenix. Needing more space, the Ragsdales
decided to find housing outside the crowded, segregated black areas in
central and south Phoenix. Recently licensed as a real estate agent,
and quite light-skinned, Eleanor went looking for a new home. She
found a house she liked at 1606 W. Thomas Road in the Encanto-
Palmcroft district. Because restrictive covenants were strongly
enforced, when Ragsdale found the home, she did not show it to her
husband. Instead, one of her white friends pretended to buy it, and
then the Ragsdales purchased the home while it was still in escrow.
That meant that Lincoln Ragsdale bought the home sight unseen. The
couple lived in the residence for 17 years, sometimes encountering
harassment and racial bigotry but always withstanding the pressure to
leave, due to their belief that challenging segregation was vitally
important.
In Eleanor Ragsdale's work as a real estate agent, she dedicated
herself to finding homes for African Americans outside segregated
areas. She sold homes to blacks in the neighborhoods surrounding the
state capitol, gradually desegregating the area. In addition, she and
her family participated in civil rights marches and lobbying efforts
to end segregation in Arizona. Her stalwart activism and courage made
her a role model to other African Americans. Like African American
women throughout the U.S., Ragsdale played a vital role in
desegregating the nation's schools, public facilities, neighborhoods
and places of employment.
For more information, see Matthew Whitaker's Race Work: The Rise of
Civil Rights in the Urban West. The Arizona Historical Society Museum
in Tempe contains an oral history interview with Eleanor Ragsdale.
Photo Credits:
Eleanor Dickey Ragsdale - Courtesy of the Ragsdale family
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