Arnita Young Boswell

Arnita Young Boswell
April 19, 1920 – July 6, 2002
First Unitarian Church of Chicago

• Daughter of Whitney Young, Sr. (teacher, principal, institute president) and Laura Young (among early Black female US postmasters)
• Sister of Whitney Young, Jr. (civil rights leader, executive director National Urban League)
• Bachelor’s degree in home economics from Kentucky State University
• Master’s degree in social work from Atlanta University 
• Social worker with the Red Cross; recreation director for soldiers in Germany during World War II 
• Trained to fly by a Tuskegee Airman at Fisk University 
• Directed the women’s division of 1966 march in support of desegregating housing in Chicago led by Rev. Martin Luther King
• Founded the National Hook-Up of Black Women and the League of Black Women
• Co-founded the Chicago Urban League and its Women’s Board
• Taught social work at The University of Chicago for 19 years
• Director of social services at University of Illinois at Chicago
• Director of Family Resources Center, Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago (Department of Human Services)
• First national director of Project Head Start
• Founded Boswell-Young & Associates consulting firm in Chicago
• Member of First Unitarian Church of Chicago; memorialized there after her death in 1982
• A Chicago Park District children’s park is named in her honor
• Find out more: Veteran Feminists of America website