Women's Forum Oral History Collection Interview Index

Gladys Alma Fowler Graves was born July 5, 1947 and grew up on a farm in Blanche, North Carolina. She graduated from Caswell County High School in 1965, which was still segregated at the time. She graduated from Shaw University in 1969, where she earned a degree in elementary education with a specialization in social studies. Graves later earned a Masters in educational administration from North Carolina Central University. She taught in Caswell County and Guilford County, and went on to be a leader in a variety of education-focused organizations. She served as president of the North Carolina Association for Classroom Teachers and oversaw its integration with the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). Graves later served as president and vice president of NCAE, and eventually the director of North Carolina’s Teaching Fellows program. Graves became aware of the ERA when organizations she was active in, like NCAE and the National Education Association, began supporting the amendment. As she notes in the interview, being Black presented Graves with a tough choice between gender activism and civil rights activism, and she was therefore less active in the ERA movement.