Sally Rowley
Sara Jane "Sally" Rowley (October 20, 1931 – May 14, 2020) was an American jewelry-maker and civil rights activist.[1]
Sally Rowley | |
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| Born | Sara Jane Rowley October 20, 1931 Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | May 14, 2020 (aged 88) Tucson, Arizona, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Stephens College |
| Occupation | Civil rights advocate, aircraft pilot, flight attendant, secretary, jeweler, hawker |
| Employer | American Airlines |
Life
She was born in Trenton, New Jersey. She graduated from Stephens College in Missouri. At Stephens, she learned to fly small planes and worked as a flight attendant for American Airlines after graduation.[1]
She was working as a secretary in New York in the early 1960s when she joined the Freedom Riders, who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States to challenge the non-enforcement of the Supreme Court's ruling that segregated public buses were unconstitutional. This led to her arrest by Jackson County Police in 1961.[2][3]
After serving time in Mississippi State Penitentiary she returned to New York where she met the artist Felix Pasilis. They would be together until his death in 2018 though never married.[1]
In May 2020, she died of coronavirus after it swept through her Tucson, Arizona nursing home.[1]
References
- "Sally Rowley, Jewelry Maker and Freedom Rider, Dies at 88". The New York Times. 2020-05-21. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
- "Rowley, Sally Jane, 1931-". Welcome to the Civil Rights Digital Library. 1961-07-29. Retrieved 2020-05-24.
- Arsenault, R. (2007). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Pivotal moments in American history. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-532714-4. Retrieved 2020-05-24.