Dr. Jeanne L. Noble
Dr. Jeanne Noble began her Delta career as President of Alpha Chapter, Howard University and as one of a small band of undergraduates who prevailed upon the 20th National Convention to establish a national undergraduate office on the board. While a graduate student at Columbia University, Soror Noble was appointed by National President Dorothy Height as the first chair of National Projects. After launching the Five Point Project, she was elected National First Vice President and, two years later, became the youngest person to be elected National President of Delta Sigma Theta.
During her tenure as 12th National President, the sorority shaped its purpose and identity as a public service organization. It was also during Soror Noble's presidency that the South Atlantic Region, comprising the states of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, was established. As the Black Revolution moved centerstage, claiming prominence in the sorority's program, Soror Noble's tenure concluded at the Golden Anniversary Convention.
In 1971, with National President Lillian P. Benbow and Executive Director Lynette Taylor, she conceptualized the National Commission on Arts and Letters and served as its first chair. During this period, the commission conducted a study for The Corporation for Public Broadcasting designed to increase black viewership in public broadcasting. It was during this period, too, that the organization produced a classic landmark record, Roses and Revolutions, and co-produced with Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, a movie, Countdown at Kusini. Dr. Noble is co-author with Dr. Nancy Rudolph of the Sorority's Intake Process & Program adopted at the 1983 convention.
Dr. Noble served two further terms as Chair of the National Arts and Letters Commission, appointed by Soror Mona H. Bailey in 1980 and Soror Yvonne Kennedy in 1988. During this tenure, Soror Noble produced the video 75 Years in Retrospect, the Natalie Cole Public Service Announcement on drug abuse, produced Convention galas and launched Project Cherish. She also served as currently Chair of the Commission on Ceremonies and Rituals until August, 2000.
Highly respected as a master teacher, lecturer, research scholar, writer and consultant, Dr. Noble held the distinction of being the first black woman to move through a tenured track from assistant to full professor at a predominately white university, New York University. She also served as Professor Emerita of Education in the Graduate School at the City University of New York and Dean of The Dorothy I. Height Leadership Institute of The National Council of Negro Women.
Numerous articles in professional journals and three books, including Beautiful Also Are The Souls of My Black Sisters, established Dr. Noble as a major scholar on the psychosocial history of black women. A television program, The Learning Experience, which she hosted, ran in New York for five years and won a regional Emmy.
She was appointed by United States Presidents Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford to serve on National Commissions.
In 1989 she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Black Women in Higher Education and, in May 1991, an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Bennett College in Greensboro, NC.
A skilled tennis player and swimmer, Soror Noble was an ardent sports aficionada.
Soror Noble served as a member of the vestry and lay reader at The Episcopal Church of the Ascension in New York City, where her services will be held on October 24th and 25th.
