Educator and Activist Gloria Howard Free
Asheville native Gloria Howard Free was educated in the local schools, and then went on to obtain a BA in Education from Johnson C. Smith University in 1955, in English and Spanish. Upon earning her degree, she moved to New York City, where she worked for an after-school program educating youth in English and Spanish.
Upon her return to Asheville, Gloria began teaching at Stephens-Lee High School in 1959, where she continued to teach English and Spanish. Following the closing of the celebrated segregated high school, Mrs. Howard Free transferred to South French Broad High and then Asheville High School. Meanwhile she earned certification as a speech therapist from Western Carolina University—and while employed with Asheville City Schools, she became the first African American to integrate the field of speech therapy in Buncombe County.
In addition to her fame as a notable educator, Gloria Howard Free was one of the originators of Asheville’s acclaimed pan-African festival of Goombay!, as well as being a founder of “The Friends of the YMI Cultural Center” in 1982. The Goombay! Festival, still ongoing after 42 years, was and remains an enriching cultural experience, “one that I will never forget,” says Ms. Free.
Goombay! is a festival that celebrates the rich, diverse culture and history of the African continent and its diaspora throughout the western world, and Ms. Free remains, each year, excited and proud to see Asheville’s local Goombay! tradition continue, in partnership with the YMI Cultural Center, one of the oldest—and possibly the oldest—African American cultural centers in the United States.
The Goombay! Festival will be held in September of 2024. Check The Urban News throughout the summer for more information.
Read the full article here
