• Photo of Armendia DixonArmendia Dixon

    Armendia Dixon became the first African-American educator to integrate the public schools in her hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, serving as a librarian at what had previously been an all-white elementary school. There, she was largely ignored and shunned, according to a 2021 profile in The Meadville Tribune.

    After just a year in the job, Dixon moved to Erie in the late 1960s, "lured by the chance to earn more than the $200 she was being paid each month as well as the opportunity to work with people who would actually talk to her." 

    In the years that followed, she held many positions, including principal of Erie's Strong Vincent High School and director of curriculum and instruction for the district, and earned a master's degree at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate at Kent State University. She now directs the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Mentoring Program at Meadville Area Middle School.

    Photo credit: Erie Times-News/GoErie.com