{{Short description|American educator and civil rights activist}} {{Infobox person | name = Layle Lane | image = LayleLane1926.png | alt = A light-skinned Black woman wearing a dark dress | caption = Layle Lane, from a 1926 publication | birth_date = November 27, 1893 | birth_place = Marietta, Georgia, US | death_date = February 2, 1976 | death_place = Cuernavaca, Mexico | occupation = Teacher, civil rights activist, politician, labor leader }}
'''Layle Lane''' (November 27, 1893 – February 2, 1976) was an American educator and civil rights activist.<ref name="NYPL">{{cite web|title=Layle Lane papers 1933-1951|url=http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20944|website=The New York Public Library - Archives and Manuscripts|publisher=The New York Public Library|access-date=10 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="UFT">{{cite web|title=United Federation of Teachers - Layle Lane|url=http://www.uft.org/who-we-are/history/layle-lane|website=United Federation of Teachers|publisher=|access-date=10 October 2017}}</ref><ref name="LAF">{{cite news|last1=Schierenbeck|first1=Jack|title=Lost and Found: The Incredible Life and Times of (Miss) Layle Lane|url=https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/LostandFound_JackSchierenbeck.pdf|access-date=10 October 2017|work=American Educator|volume=24|issue=4, Winter 2000-2001}}</ref>
==Life== Lane was born in Marietta, Georgia in 1893 to Reverend Calvin Lane and Alice Virginia Clark Lane.<ref name=NYPL /><ref name= LAF /> She was their fourth child. Her father was a Congregationalist minister and her mother was a teacher.<ref name=NYPL /><ref name=LAF /> Her family left Georgia after her father was threatened to be lynched.<ref name=UFT /> The family resettled in Knoxville, Tennessee, and three years later in Vineland, New Jersey.<ref name=NYPL /><ref name=UFT /><ref name=LAF /> In Vineland, Lane attended Vineland High School, where she was the first black graduate of the school.<ref name=LAF /> Lane never married.<ref name=LAF /> In 1976, she died in Cuernavaca, Mexico.<ref name="NYTO">{{cite news|title=Layle Lane, Rights Leader, Teachers' Union Officer, 78|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/03/05/archives/layle-lane-rights-leader-teachers-union-officer-78.html|work=The New York Times|date=5 March 1976|access-date=10 October 2017}}</ref>
==Education== Lane graduated from Howard University in 1916. After being unable to receive a job as a teacher in a New York public school, she returned to school earning a second undergraduate degree at Hunter College. She received her master's degree from Columbia University.<ref name=NYTO /><ref name=UFT /><ref name=LAF />
==Career and activism== Lane became a high school teacher, teaching social studies in a New York high school.<ref name=LAF /><ref name=UFT /> Lane was heavily involved in activism throughout her life, and participated in many protests for African American rights and workers' rights.<ref name=LAF /> She became an early member of the Teachers Union, and later the Teachers Guild. She served on the executive board of the Teacher's Guild.
Lane was elected the first black female American Federation of Teachers vice president. She ran five times as a candidate in the Socialist Party for public office. Three of those times were for Congress.<ref name=LAF /><ref name=UFT /> Lane served on the National Committee for Rural Schools.<ref name=NYTO /> She helped to plan and organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1941. Lane ran a summer camp on her Pennsylvania farm for impoverished black children from the inner-city.<ref name=LAF /><ref name=UFT /><ref name=NYTO /><ref name=NYPL />
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * [http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20944 The Layle Lane Papers at the New York Public Library] * [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/890625342 A book about Lane, "La citadelle : Layle Lane and social activism in twentieth-century America," on WorldCat] * [https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/LostandFound_JackSchierenbeck.pdf An article about Lane in a 2000 issue of American Educator]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Layle}} Category:1893 births Category:1976 deaths Category:Hunter College alumni Category:People from Marietta, Georgia Category:Columbia University alumni Category:People from Vineland, New Jersey Category:Vineland High School alumni Category:Howard University alumni Category:American Federation of Teachers people Category:African-American activists Category:Civil rights activists from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Civil rights activists from New Jersey Category:Educators from Georgia (U.S. state) Category:Educators from New Jersey Category:Socialist Party of America politicians from New York (state) Category:20th-century American educators Category:20th-century American women educators Category:American women civil rights activists Category:20th-century African-American women Category:20th-century African-American educators