English: Biography: Zelma Watson George, a sociologist, diplomat, and opera singer, graduated from the University of Chicago in 1924. Before her father, the Rev. Samuel Watson, died in 1925, he asked her to help educate the five younger children; this took close to 20 years. She held positions as a social worker, probation officer to the juvenile court in Chicago, dean of women and director of personnel administration at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State University, and executive director of Avalon Community Center in Los Angeles. After she married Clayborne George in 1944, he encouraged her to sing the title role in a Cleveland production of Menotti's The Medium, thus launching her career as an opera singer. She sang this role on Broadway and over the years has appeared in a number of opera productions in Cleveland and elsewhere. She received her Ph.D. in sociology in 1954 from New York University, with her dissertation, A Guide to Negro Music. Dr. George's diplomatic career was launched in 1959 by a six month tour of the world with a grant from the State Department. In 1960 she was appointed a member of the U.S. delegation to the 15th General Assembly of the United Nations. On December 16, 1960, she received instant recognition around the world when she rose alone among the U.S. delegation with spontaneous applause for a resolution recommending a "speedy and unconditional end to colonialism." The resolution had passed with a vote of 89 to 0, with nine abstentions, including the United States. From 1968 to 1974, Dr. George was executive director of the Cleveland Job Corps Center, operated by AKA. She is active in The Links, Inc. and has served on the boards of the World Federalists and the International Peace Academy. She was honored in 1974 by an Ohio Zelma George Day, and received the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold Award in 1961, the Dahlberg Peace Award in 1969, and the Mary Bethune Gold Medallion in 1973.

Description: The Black Women Oral History Project interviewed 72 African American women between 1976 and 1981. With support from the Schlesinger Library, the project recorded a cross section of women who had made significant contributions to American society during the first half of the 20th century. Photograph taken by Judith Sedwick
Repository: Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America.
Collection: Black Women Oral History Project
Research Guide: http://guides.library.harvard.edu/schlesinger_bwohp

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