Did you know that Elizabeth Dunkan Conquest was a proud member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorryity, Inc.? Honorary member since 1965, Koontz has left an indelible sign of American education, civil rights and women’s movement.
Born in June 3, 1919, in Salisbury, North Carolina, Elizabeth Dunkan was the youngest of the seven children who grew up in their families on the basis of the value of education. Her father, Samuel Denkan, a high school director and head of Levingstone College, and her mother, Lina Bill Dunkan, was an elementary teacher who also taught adults to read. This legacy of education deeply forms the path of Koontz.
After graduating from Salutatorian from PRICE High School in 1935, Koontz obtained a Bachelor’s degree in English and Primary Education from Livingstone College in 1938 and a master’s degree from Atlanta University in 1941. She continued more studies at Columbia University, Indiana University, and North Carolina College.
Koontz has started her career in teaching children with special needs in North Carolina and soon rose to the national forefront. She was a member of the National Education Association (NEA), and became the first African president in 1968. During her presidency, NEA led to a new era by establishing the Human and Civil Rights Department to address educational stocks for minority students.
Her leadership extended to the federal level in 1969 when President Richard Nixon appointed her as the first African American director of the US Labor Ministry office. In this role, Koontz tackled systematic discrimination against women and minorities, and encouraged the amendment of equality in rights, and like the United States on the global stage, including in the United Nations Committee on the situation of women in 1975.
Koontz Awards were many: I received an honorary doctorate from institutions including the University of Howard, the Levingson College, the Copen State College, and the University of Indiana. An elementary school in Salisbury, North Carolina, bears its name in honor of its legacy.
She continued to serve her community as an assistant director of the government school in North Carolina until her retirement in 1982 and sat in many educational boards and commissions.
Elizabeth Dunkan Contin died from a heart attack on January 6, 1989. Her leading spirit and commitment to justice, education and equality lives through the life she touched – and through the sister of Zita Fai Beta, who claims it proudly between her.
Share this article with your network and let them know this interesting fact about Zeta Fai Beta
