Background
She was born to a farming family in Vermont in 1909.
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Faith Rich
Edit Profileeducator teacher supporter Education Chairman
Education
Bryn Mawr College.
Career
While working with the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union in Chicago, Rich became involved with numerous community improvement organizations, primarily in the city’s West Side neighborhood of North Lawndale. Rich’s involvement with the Westside Chicago Branch of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) began in 1945 and lasted until her death in 1990. There she served as Education Chairman, focusing her work on desegregating Chicago Public Schools and instituting an intensive phonetic program to the city’s reading curriculum.
She served on the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Textbook Committee, revising school textbooks to remove bias and better reflect contributions made by African Americans, Catholics, Jews and other groups.
In addition to her work with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Rich was an activist in the West Side community. Rich was also interested in how urban renewal, both at the city level and the community level, could affect urban life and socioeconomic opportunity.
The Institute developed and promoted an artificial, logical human language called, first introduced by Doctor James Cooke Brown in 1955. Faith Rich served as “Cerpeu of Louisiana Purmao Diigru” for the Institute, a title that roughly translates to Chairperson of the Word Creation Committee.
She was also interested in the language as it related to linguistics and education in general, a lifelong interest of hers.
Throughout her adult life Rich was employed as a temporary office worker, which allowed her flexibility to set her own schedule. She gained a teaching certificate in education, but preferred to work as a substitute teacher or tutor for the same reason. She continued working with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, George West. Collins Local School Council and the 15th Place Block Club until the end of her life.
Faith Rich was diagnosed with thyroiditis in 1981.
She died on March 12, 1990. The Faith Rich Papers were processed by the Black Metropolis Research Consortium"s Behind the Color Curtain processing project in the spring of 2013.
The papers are available at the Chicago Public Library Special Collections located in the Harold Washington Library Center.
Politics
She received her doctoral degree in Classics from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania in 1934, despite the College’s opposition to her radicalism.
Membership
She served as a member of the Illinois Parent Teacher Association (Parent-Teachers Association), the George West. Collins High School’s Local School Council (LSC) and the 15th Place Block Club.
