Merson, Edna, 1895-1974
Dates
- Existence: 1895-1974
Biographical Statement
Edna Merson was a New York-born civil rights leader and co-founder of the Committee on Civil Rights in Metropolitan New York (CCRM).
Edna Merson was born on July 28, 1895, to Harry Astruck and Clara Strouse. She attended the Jacobi School, an all-girls school founded in 1896 by Laura Jacobi which emphasized languages and history. After graduating in 1911 from Jacobi, Edna enrolled at Barnard College, graduating in 1914 with a B.A. degree and a year later earned an M.A. in History from Columbia University.
In 1925, she served as chair of the board of trustees at Walden School, and from 1943 through 1945, she worked in the United States Office of Censorship. In 1950, Edna Merson, along with Snowden T. Herrick, Horace T. Herrick, Richard H. Paul, and Herrick Lidstone, were principal founders of the Committee on Civil Rights in Metropolitan New York (CCRM). The (CCRM) was incorporated on March 24, 1950, under the initial title of the Committee on Civil Rights in East Manhattan, Inc., and was created with the purpose of comparing segregation. From 1950 to 1952, the Committee conducted several surveys on apartments, restaurants, luncheonettes and drug stores for signs of discrimination against Black patrons. On April 27, 1962, Edna Merson received a letter from Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson personally inviting her to a Washington D.C. conference given by the President's Committee on Equal Employment.
Edna Merson died July 13, 1974, in New York