In February we celebrate Black History Month across America. It’s important to recognize and celebrate the impact, resilience and brilliance of African Americans in our society not only in February, but throughout the year. One such person was a Spud trailblazer named Cordelia Blount. A century ago, Cordelia was a 10th grader at Moorhead High School, a building now known as the Townsite Center. Two years later, she became the first African American graduate in MHS history.
Originally from Atlanta, Ga., Cordelia’s family moved to Minnesota while she was school-aged. A future English major, Cordelia worked on the Cho-Kio yearbook at MHS, writing the class notes for the seniors in the 1927 edition. She would earn her undergraduate degree from North Dakota State University before moving back to her native Georgia. In 1954, she completed her master’s degree in English at Atlanta University with the thesis “The Semantics of Segregation in the Public Schools.”
That same year—one commonly recognized as the start of the American Civil Rights Movement—Cordelia became Dean of Women at Paine College, a historically black college in nearby Augusta, a role she would keep for 22 years. During her time at Paine, she advocated for school desegregation and studied the reaction to these efforts in the American south. In Georgia, she observed varying responses to the integration movement: some cities had violent demonstrations and others were able to integrate with minimal incidents.
“Cordelia is a prime example of students from Moorhead High who continue their service to others long after they graduate from our school,” said Spud historian Brian Cole. “She played a pivotal role in creating leadership opportunities for females and for people of color.”
Blount’s family was also very active in the American civil rights movement: her uncle, Dr. Benjamin Mays, gave the invocation before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in Washington, D.C., and gave a eulogy at Dr. King’s funeral.
Cordelia never forgot Moorhead, returning in 1960 to spend time with former Spud classmates.
In 2022, 95 years after she graduated, MHS inducted Cordelia into the school’s Hall of Honor.