What Color Is the Wind?

"An idea has unfortunately gotten abroad that being a Negro is like being in solitary confinement - away from the rest of the world. It is thought, indeed, that there could be no place chosen so gloomy or so hopeless in which to be born as among this race composed to some extent of descendants of Ham. Yet the whole question depends - as all other things do in life - on the point of view and the state of mind. - Life's happiness lies in anticipation. It is a truism that perfectly fits the Negro's case. So much lies before him, the things he can hope to achieve are so much more numerous than those Aryans can look forward to, that his pleasures of hope are endless - why seek disillusion in attainment? It is but seldom that delights grow stale by being by being transform from the imaginary to the real. (E.E. Wilson, "The Joys of Being a Negro") In the nineteen thirties delights not dreamed of by Black farmers in Oakridge, Tennessee began to evolve through painful events. They accepted their fate, and that is where this journey began.

Edna Paralee Thompson was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She spent her early childhood on her great grandfather’s farm in Oakridge, Tennessee. Edna’s family migrated to Worcester, Massachusetts during the late 1930s and early ’40s. She married Cornelius Boyed Spencer and they had one daughter, Olivia Rochelle Spencer, who died on August 4, 2006. Edna earned degrees from Quinsigamond Community College and Clark University, both in Worcester, and she holds a master’s degree in Liberal Arts from Clark University. Edna is the first black woman to serve as chairman of the trustee board of Quinsigamond Community College, and the first black woman to serve as president of the YWCA of Central Massachusetts. She has served on the Trustee Board of the United Way and several other city and agency committees. She is the recipient of The National Conference of Christians and Jews Brotherhood Award, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Good Citizen Award, The YWCA of Central Massachusetts Katherine F. Erskine Award, and The Clark University Outstanding Alumni Award. Edna was also given a key to the City of Worcester, where she and Cornelius currently reside.