Norma Elizabeth Boyd

Boyd was educated in public schools in Washington, D.C. In September 1906, Boyd was admitted to Howard University's College of Arts and Sciences, where she majored in math. Howard University was the top historically black college in the nation. It was a time when only 1/3 of 1% of African Americans and 5% of whites of eligible age attended any college. Boyd graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1910. ==Career and later life==

A lifelong learner, over the years Boyd took graduate courses in education and public relations at Columbia University, New York University, University of California at Berkeley, Vermont's Middlebury College Language School, National Autonomous University of Mexico, American University and George Washington University. For more than thirty years, Boyd was an educator in public schools in Washington, D.C. Boyd would bring student council officers to congressional hearings, to educate them about the political process. She retired from teaching in 1948. ==Alpha Kappa Alpha==

Incorporation of the sorority At Howard University, Norma Elizabeth Boyd was one of seven sophomore initiates of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in February 1908. The Non-Partisan Council worked with the NAACP, The Urban League, The United Office and Professional Workers of America, The National Association of Graduate Nurses, the American Federation of Churches, the Colored Women's Club, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and Auxiliary, and the New York Voter's League. Established in 1946, the American Council of Human Rights superseded the Non-Partisan Council. For her efforts in creating and guiding the Non-Partisan Council, in 1948 Boyd was named "Woman of the Year in the Field of Legislation" by the National Council of Negro Women. ==United Nations Involvement==

Norma Boyd was named as a United Nations observer in 1949. She took part in several committees, such as the Advisory Committee to the American Delegate to the Inter-American Council of Women, the Pan-American Liaison Committee, and the East-West Association. In 1949 Boyd traveled to South America as an observer at the Inter-American Commission of Women in Buenos Aires, Argentina. At the conference, she was a delegate representing the United Nation's Non-Government Organizations, the International House Association, the People's Mandate Committee, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. While in Brazil, Boyd also founded a chapter of International House. As an observer, Boyd was interested in children's rights and supported Principle 10 of the Declaration of Human Rights. To help educate her students, one year Boyd financed twenty-five of them for a trip to the United Nations' General Assembly in New York City. ==Later life==

In 1959, Boyd established the Women's International Religious Fellowship. Norma Elizabeth Boyd, the last surviving founder of Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA), died in Washington, D.C., on March 14, 1985. ==Membership in other organizations==

Boyd was active in a wide variety of organizations: • Professional: National Council of Mathematics Teachers, American Federation of Teachers, and American Teacher's Association; • International: International Committee of the Temple of Understanding, Women's International Religious Fellowship, Pan-American Liaison Committee, and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; and • Political: Non-Partisan Council, East-West Association, and People's Mandate Committee. Boyd was also president of the International House Association in Washington, D.C. From 1958–1959 she chaired the World Fellowship Inter-Faith Committee at All Souls Church, Unitarian, of Washington, D.C. ==See also==