Roslyn Pope

Civil rights activist, author

• Born: October 29, 1938
• Birthplace: Atlanta, Georgia
• Died: January 19, 2023
• Place of death: Arlington, Texas

Significance: Roslyn Pope was an American civil rights activist and author. In 1960, she co-drafted “An Appeal for Human Rights,” which became the manifesto of the Atlanta Student Movement and appeared in major publications like The New York Times. The document helped launch a series of peaceful protests and sit-ins that eventually helped end institutionalized segregation in the South.

Background

Roslyn Pope was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1938, and spent her childhood there. Growing up in the segregated South, she did not first experience integrated society (Black and White people living side by side) until going on a Girl Scout trip as a teenager. She was sent as Georgia’s representative to attend the national camp in Cody, Wyoming—no Black scout had ever attended before. She also was elected as student body president of her all-Black high school.

Pope attended Spelman College, graduating with a major in music and minors in French and English in 1960. While an undergraduate, she was the president of the Student Government Association. Pope was musically gifted, playing piano at Friendship Baptist Church. This led to a performance with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. She also studied music in Paris, France, thanks to a Merrill scholarship during her junior year. She would later say that her time in Paris was life-changing because she could eat where she wanted and go where she pleased. Pope went on to earn a master’s degree in English from Georgia State University. She also received a grant to study at Syracuse University, where she earned a doctoral degree in humanities in 1974.

Life’s Work

Upon returning from France during her senior year of college, Pope was frustrated to return to the racism of the South. She was sharing her misery in a drugstore with NAACP chairman Julian Bond one day when Martin Luther King, Jr., walked in. He shared news about four Black students who had been arrested during a sit-in the day before in North Carolina. Pope said that in that moment it clicked, and the three decided to start a movement. They recruited other students at Morehouse, Spelman, Clark, and Morris Brown Colleges, along with Atlanta University and the Interdenominational Theological Center.

King appointed Pope to a committee to draft a document, but days passed with no input from the others. At that point, he told Pope to write it herself. Her work became “An Appeal for Human Rights,” and outlined equality rights of Blacks in a number of areas including education, jobs, housing, hospitals, entertainment, and law enforcement. It also said equality in these areas was a matter of human rights, not just civil rights. The appeal stated that Black students did not intend to “wait placidly” for rights that were already legally and morally theirs. It appeared in The Atlanta Constitution, The Atlanta Journal, and The Atlanta Daily World on March 9, 1960. The document was so powerful that it also ran in The New York Times, The Nation Magazine, and The Harvard Crimson. Though Pope is largely credited with writing the appeal, her name appears last after five other student leaders at other colleges and universities.

After graduating from college, Pope spent her professional career as a professor and scholar. She taught at Pennsylvania State’s Department of Religious Studies and was head of the music department. She also taught at the high school and college level until the early 1980s, including at the University of Texas in Arlington. She then began working in sales with Southwestern Bell, staying with the company for twenty years before retiring.

Impact

“An Appeal for Human Rights” helped to launch a nonviolent campaign of boycotts and sit-ins by Black college students who were protesting discrimination at places like restaurants, theaters and parks. This eventually helped to end race-based Jim Crow laws in October 1961. It was read into the Congressional Record as evidence of how segregation was inhibiting peoples’ ability to coexist with equality and dignity. The appeal was adopted as the manifesto for the Atlanta Student Movement, the Coalition on the Appeal for Human Rights, and the Atlanta chapter of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. It continues to help shape the goals and strategies of student activists across the world. Today, a historical marker at the former site of the Yates & Milton Drug Store (where the movement unofficially began) tells the story of the Atlanta Student Movement, including Pope’s “An Appeal for Human Rights.”

Personal Life

Pope was mostly a private figure. She was briefly married to John W. Walker, and the couple had two daughters named Rhonda and Donna. Pope earned both of her advanced degrees while raising her children. She moved to Texas from Atlanta in 2021 to live with her daughters after her health began to decline. Her cause of death in 2023 is unknown.

Bibliography

“An Appeal for Human Rights.” History is a Weapon, 1960, www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/anappealforhumanrights.html. Accessed 26 June 2023.

“Atlanta Student Movement Historical Marker.” Explore Georgia, 2023, www.exploregeorgia.org/atlanta/history-heritage/african-american/atlanta-student-movement-historical-marker. Accessed 26 June 2023.

“AP Photo Gallery: Atlanta Student Movement of 1960.” The Associated Press, 8 Mar. 2020, apnews.com/article/88c37cd52ef70b08a32b31d76263a2eb. Accessed 26 June 2023.

Bernardi, Dan. “Remembering A&S Alumna Roslyn Pope G’74, Author of ‘An Appeal for Human Rights’.” Syracuse University, 25 Feb. 2023, news.syr.edu/blog/2023/02/25/remembering-as-alumna-roslyn-pope-g74-author-of-an-appeal-for-human-rights/. Accessed 26 June 2023.

“Dr. Rosyln Pope.” Humanity in Action USA, Feb. 2023, humanityinaction.org/person/roslyn-pope/. Accessed 26 June 2023.

Jones, Booker. “Roslyn Pope, Founding Member of the Atlanta Student Movement, dies at 84.” Black Enterprise, 11 Feb. 2023, www.blackenterprise.com/roslyn-pope-a-founding-member-of-the-atlanta-student-movement-dies-84/. Accessed 26 June 2023.

“Remembering Roslyn Pope, Ph.D., C’60.” Spelman College, Feb. 2023, www.spelman.edu/about-us/news-and-events/our-stories/stories/2023/02/07/remembering-roslyn-pope-ph.d.-c'60. Accessed 26 June 2023.

“Roslyn Pope, who drafted influential civil rights document, dies at 84.” The Washington Post, 13 Feb. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2023/02/13/rosalyn-pope-civil-rights-atlanta-dead/. Accessed 26 June 2023.