Helen Ackerman Mervis, 1917-2000

Born in Pittsburgh, Helen Mervis came to New Orleans in 1938 and immediately began confronting segregation. As President and a longtime board member of the local and national Urban League, she engaged a new generation of Jewish women, such as Sylvia Sterne and Renna Godchaux, in the Urban League. In 1957, the day Mervis was named President of the Urban League, her name, home address and phone number were announced publicly at a White Citizen’s Council rally, initiating years of harassment for her civil rights work. As a founder of the city’s Human Relations Commission (HRC), she also mentored politicians and business leaders such as Mayor Moon Landrieu and Ian Arnoff. In the photo at the far right, she is shown receiving the Irma Isaacson award from the local Brandeis Women’s Organization, a testament to the many links between women in different generations of activists.