In the early 1920’s, life in Edgefield, South Carolina was simple. There was little beyond work, school and church. Whites knew their fortune and Blacks knew their place. But what if you were a scrawny little kid of Cherokee, German, African and French ancestry and what if you struggled constantly to either “fit in” or be left alone? At a very early age, Ophelia knew that her life was destined for places and experiences far beyond the slave-haunted fields of the segregated south. Although Ms. DeVore would eventually be recognized as one of the nation’s greatest advocates for social change, her journey would be long and challenging.
A near-fatal car accident at the age of 34, threats of destruction and death from racists groups, the mysterious death of her activist husband…the Ophelia DeVore story is about a woman who on a quest to define who she was, helped America recognize and embrace who IT was.
LaJuan Carter-Dent © 2009
“The Story of Ophelia DeVore and Her Quest to Redefine “Beauty” in America”
