Funeral services will be held Thursday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave. A livestream of the service will be available at calvarypgh.org/live.)
At 95 years young, Alma Speed Fox was given the City of Pittsburgh’s highest honor -— the Key to the City.
The date was Oct. 23, 2018, at the City-County Building, Downtown. Her family and friends were all there to mark this historic occasion.
It seemed to be a culmination of all the accomplishments she’s achieved in her life, all the civil rights battles she fought for the betterment of African Americans and women in Pittsburgh.
But Fox threw everyone at the celebration a curveball. She went to the podium, received the key from then-mayor Bill Peduto, and then revealed what she was going to do with the key.
“I’m going to use my key to open wide whatever door there is to help me get voters to the polls on Tuesday, November 6,” Fox said, met with a thunderous applause. “We don’t have long. Just two weeks. So that’s what I’ll be doing for the next two weeks. Doing my best to make sure voters get out and vote. I hope that’s what you’ll be doing, too. It’s not hard; just do it.”
ALMA SPEED FOX RECEIVES THE KEY TO THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH IN 2018
In that moment, Fox showed everyone that this celebration was no “culmination,” or that her fight for civil rights had ended. She showed that her fight for civil rights was everlasting.
On Monday, Jan. 24, Fox passed away at her home in Stanton Heights. She was 98.
Fox was known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” She came to Pittsburgh in 1949 when she married Gerald Fox. In the 1950s, Fox began getting actively involved in civil rights demonstrations throughout Pittsburgh, against companies like U.S. Steel and Duquesne Light. She told the story of how she watched other African Americans on TV at the civil rights demonstrations, and was determined to join the movement.
Fox became executive director/president of the Pittsburgh NAACP in 1966, where she served in that capacity until 1971. She was a cant-miss figure on the local Human Rights Commission from 1972-2002. Fox was among the founders of Freedom Unlimited Inc., an organization whose mission was to provide training, educational opportunities and food to low-income families. Fox was known for those Thanksgiving meal giveaways at the building on Wylie Avenue, of which people like veteran journalist Tene Croom would volunteer to pass out the meals.
“She was an open and warm person,” Croom told the New Pittsburgh Courier of Fox. “She never met strangers. She was very easy to get along with. That was part of her charm.”
Eventually, Fox’s name was placed on the building that housed Freedom Unlimited, the NAACP and the Black Political Empowerment Project. Very few people get buildings named after them. But then again, very few people were Alma Speed Fox.
“She was an extremely giving person who was never afraid to fight for equality and justice for everyone,” said Johnnie Miott, President of the Pittsburgh Branch NAACP. “The Black community has lost a true matriarch.”
Fox began working with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, in 1956, and in the mid 1970s, she became Equal Opportunity manager of the Eastern Area office. She retired from there in 1993.
Fox served as president of the East End National Organization for Women and was on that organization’s board of directors. She also served on the boards of the organizations Gwen’s Girls and the Women and Girls Foundation.
Upon learning of her death, Peduto tweeted: “Pittsburgh lost a leader, a true freedom fighter, who trailblazed a path of civil rights and social justice throughout our region for over 50 years. Alma Speed Fox was a mentor and friend. An advisor with a warm smile and compassionate heart, she not only knew history, she made it.”
Mayor Gainey called Fox a “civil rights icon who helped to transform the City of Pittsburgh. We Love You.”
Jerry Dickinson, Pitt associate law professor and U.S. congressional candidate, told the Courier: “I was saddened to hear of the passing of Alma Speed Fox. As a legendary civil rights activist in Pittsburgh who fought tirelessly throughout her life for racial equality in our region, Alma was someone I looked up to. It was a privilege to be able to call her a friend, mentor and an inspiration.”
Fox’s official obituary said that “as a young wife and mother, Alma relished socializing with other wives and mothers as a member of the Junior Mothers Association. It may be a surprise to know that she thoroughly enjoyed dancing the electric slide and regularly gathering with close family.”
Among her many awards were being named a Courier “Woman of Excellence” in 2009 and a “Woman of Excellence Legacy Honoree” in 2014. She was a longtime member of the Church of the Holy Cross in Homewood.
ALMA SPEED FOX, TIM STEVENS
“Alma Speed Fox had consistency, persistence, personality, charm, strength,” voiced Tim Stevens, Chairman and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, in an interview with the Courier, Feb. 1.
In fact, Stevens refers to Fox as his “Civil Rights Mother,” as Stevens followed in Fox’s footsteps at the Pittsburgh NAACP. Fox was executive director (known then as executive secretary) until 1971, then Stevens became executive director.
Stevens told the Courier that had it not been for Fox, he most likely would never have been executive director. “She kept asking me to put my application in (for executive director),” said Stevens, who at the time was the Pittsburgh NAACP’s youth director. “It’s hard to say no to Alma Speed Fox, almost anyone will tell you that.”
He put in his application on Fox’s final day as executive director, and Stevens was indeed selected to succeed Fox. Both served under longtime Pittsburgh NAACP President Byrd Brown.
Stevens said Fox taught him to “be who I am. She was an independent person and I think I have also had that independence for decades. She would call me and say, ‘you just keep doing what you’re doing, I’m proud of you.’”
“A lot of Black women had tremendous respect and admiration for Alma Speed Fox,” Stevens continued. “A lot of women were just overwhelmed with her death.”
For Dr. Kathi Elliott, leader of the organization Gwen’s Girls, Fox’s legacy could be best described as “generational legacy.” Dr. Elliott’s mother, Gwen, founded Gwen’s Girls in 2002, and one of the closest people to her mother was Fox.
“Although my mom is the founder of Gwen’s Girls, the spirit of Miss Alma (shows) in that foundation of sisterhood and mentorship” that Gwen’s Girls is known for, Dr. Elliott told the Courier. “I refer to her (Fox) as a ‘quiet storm.’ She was behind the scenes, she didn’t have to be out front, voicing opposition, but she could do that and would do that if she had to.”
Dr. Elliott said that Fox would always be connected to Gwen’s Girls. “Her legacy lives on.”
For Croom, her mother passed away when Croom was 10. Who stepped in and spoke with Croom just like a mother?
Alma Speed Fox.
MAURITA BRYANT, ALMA SPEED FOX
“I could go and talk to her about things I couldn’t talk to anybody else about,” Croom told the Courier exclusively. “She was always there for me. She never, ever stopped being the person I could talk to about anything. She would give me that place of refuge.”
Croom was there to watch Fox receive the Key to the City, the first woman ever to receive such an honor in Pittsburgh, on that October day in 2018.
“That day was indescribable,” Croom said.
Fox, according to Croom, actually was the one humbled, amazed that she was being honored by the mayor. That’s the humility that embodied Fox, Croom said.
“When we thought about who would be the first woman that we would recognize for this honor, it became abundantly clear,” Peduto said at the podium just before Fox was given the key. “Somebody who’s dedicated seven decades of her life to fighting for civil justice. Somebody who took the courageous stances back in the 1950s and 1960s to forever change Pittsburgh and this country. Somebody who has been not afraid to do the hard work…somebody who would take the lead. Alma, on behalf of the people of the City of Pittsburgh, thank you for forever changing our city for the better.”
(Alma Speed Fox is survived by her children; Marlene (Obydee) McKnight, Carl (Kathy) Fox, Wesley Fox McCloud, Vicki L. Fox, and Muriel Fox Alim; brother, Goodwin (Jacqueline) Duncan and sister, Mary Bruns; and a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by husband, Gerald W.; sons, Gerald H., Sr. and Richard C., Sr.; grandson, Richard B.; and sisters, Tullulah Brown and Muriel Huffman.
Funeral services will be held Thursday, Feb. 3, at 11 a.m at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave. A livestream of the service will be available at calvarypgh.org/live.)
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