Alice Windom, the St. Louis native who famously assisted Malcolm X during a visit to Africa – and lifelong friend of fellow Black cultural icon Dr. Maya Angelou – passed away on Thursday, February 10 after a lengthy illness. She was 85.
“Our community has lost another great icon,” said Lois Conley, founder, President and CEO of The Griot Museum of Black History. “I’ve never knew a more intelligent person. She was clearly a scholar, particularly as it relates to Black heritage and culture.”
Windom cultivated relationships with some of the biggest freedom fighters and change agents in the U.S. and Africa during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. But she was also a giant in her own right. She worked to build a sense of community between Black people in the United States and Africa during her years of residence and service on the continent. And upon her return to her hometown of St. Louis, Windom fought for equity, justice and resources for all.
Alice Windom was born in St. Louis on March 30, 1936 to Frances Louise Jones Windom and Dr. John Henry Windom and came from a long line of educators. Her maternal grandfather, Christopher Columbus Jones, was famously the first Black student to be admitted to Southern Illinois University.
A graduate of Sumner High School, Windom went on to attend the HBCU Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, were she earned a B.S. in social work. She went on to earn her MSW from the University of Chicago in 1959.
By the early 1960s, she was living, working and freedom fighting from Africa. Working as a secondary school teacher and secretary to the Ethiopian Ambassador, Windom was a part of an historic group of diverse African American expatriates in Ghana which included John Henrik Clarke, Maya Angelou, Curtis “Kojo” Morrow and W.E.B. DuBois.
In 1964, Windom helped plan the itinerary for Malcolm X’s trip to Ghana and served as administrative assistant for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa from 1964 to 1968, organizing international conferences in seven countries.
“She was absolutely indispensable to Malcolm, assisting his movement from place to place and providing the contacts he needed in his pursuit of interviews and consultations with various leaders,” The Amsterdam News said in a July 2014 profile that praised Windom for her critical role during the Ghana stop of the slain Civil Rights leader’s 1964 tour of Africa and the Middle East. “Five years later, she was in Lusaka, Zambia, employed mostly as a social worker for the government.”
From 1969 to 1972, Windom was a social welfare organizer for the Department of Social Welfare in Lusaka, Zambia.
“I would want to be remembered as an African patriot,” Windom said during a 2007 interview with The History Makers. “That’s been my commitment since I was a young woman.”
Windom returned to her native St. Louis in the early 1970s. She served as director of social services for the St. Louis Medium Security Institution from 1973 to 1974. In 1977, Windom sued the City of St. Louis for racial and sexual discrimination and the denial of free speech.
Over the years, Windom served in a number of civic capacities, including a lengthy tenure as a coordinator of the James T. Bush Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. While there she helped to launch workshops on education, housing, law and employment.
She was also an inaugural board member for the Griot History Museum and continued to support the efforts of the institution and its mission.
“The elevation and restoration of the dignity and respect for black people is really all I’ve ever cared about,” Windom said. “And those black folks are the ones I see on the street. They’re my family and then the whole black world.”
Final services for Ms. Windom are scheduled to take place on Monday, February 21 at Leonard Missionary Baptist Church, 1100 N. Compton. A visitation will be held from 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m., followed by an Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Ivy Beyond The Wall ceremony at 10:30 a.m. The funeral will take place at 11 a.m. with burial services at St. Peter’s Cemetery at 1 p.m.
