Ella Mae Brayboy was a legend in voter registration in Georgia.
In 1964, the Atlanta native became one of Georgia's first black deputy voter registrars. She registered a record 10,000 black voters during that decade, according to a 2000 article that appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Her life was consumed by activism. She worked as a congressional aide to former U.S. Rep. Andrew Young. Former Gov. Joe Frank Harris appointed her to one of the first commissions to oversee the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. She was director of community affairs for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for 15 years.
"She is known as the Godmother of voter registration," Kerry Ramsey of Atlanta said. "She worked with the SCLC and Dr. King's voter registration drive. That gives you an idea of how far back she goes."
Mrs. Brayboy's health had declined in recent years after she fell and broke a hip. The 92-year-old volunteer died Wednesday of natural causes at Signature of Buckhead Nursing Home. The funeral will be held 11 a.m. Wednesday at Central United Methodist Church. Grissom-Clark Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Mrs. Brayboy graduated from Booker T. Washington High, a school she helped get placed on the National Register of Historic Places. One of her teachers encouraged her activism.
"He saw I was interested in civic matters," she said in a 2000 interview, "and would take us downtown to see how government works. Sometimes we'd be standing out there in the pouring rain, just taking it in."
She worked as a waitress in Rich's Magnolia Room when she decided to get involved with the voters' rights movement. Decades of civic activism and advocacy for the under-served followed.
As chair of the Resource Development for the Fulton County Council on Aging, she succeeded in getting seniors half-price taxi fares. She played a role in the establishment of a geriatric clinic at Grady Hospital. She had a hand in the replacement of the state's centralized balloting system with voting precincts. As a MARTA consultant, she helped decide what neighborhoods the transit would go through. And she helped residents in the Pittsburgh community get indoor plumbing, electricity and natural gas service.
Through the years, Mrs. Brayboy's work was honored by churches, civic groups and politicians. She received the YWCA's 1988 Women of Achievement Award. The Atlanta organizing committee of the Million Man March in 1998 paid tribute to her and other seniors. She retired from the King Center in 1995.
A collection of her clippings, correspondence, photos and other documents are archived at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History.
"She had an unyielding moral compass," Mr. Ramsey said.
Survivors include three daughters, Joyce Brayboy Jones, Wilma Brayboy Bailey and Eleanor Brayboy Proctor, all Atlantans; seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
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