Joanna Mary Berry Shields

Early life and education Joanna Mary Berry was born in Catharpin, Virginia to Charles and Carrie Lucas Berry. Growing up, Berry attended private schools in Prince William County. At Howard University, Joanna earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in social science and mathematics.

She was a chapter delegate to the 1935 Richmond Boulé and received a special diamond pin for founding Alpha Kappa Alpha. She also kept in contact with fellow founder Lavinia Norman.

Teaching and civic leadership After earning her degree, Berry returned to Virginia and taught at her old school, Manassas Institute. In 1911, Berry moved to North Carolina, where she taught at Slater Normal School, creating generations of teachers, one of the most critical and prestigious professions in the South. Later the school expanded its curriculum to become a full university, now called Winston-Salem State University.

Berry met her husband, Samuel J. Shields, in New York City in 1913. They had six children together. The Shields family moved to South Carolina.

There Joanna Shields worked as an educator at Central School in Darlington. In 1920, with financial support of the Rosenwald Fund, she increased the school year for African-American children from three to six months.

Two years later, Shields and her family moved back to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Shields began to participate more in civic and religious activities. She was secretary at the Wentz Memorial Church and worked with the church's nursery school.

In 1937 Shields and her family returned to New York City. There Shields taught English at Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx until 1943.

Shields also was active in community groups, such as the Harlem YMCA, NAACP, Negro History Club, and the National Council of Negro Women. She was instrumental as an advocate for consumers and senior citizen's rights by serving on the Mayor's Committee on Human Rights and the Consumers Protective Committee. She worked in the voter's registration movement.

She volunteered to care for the sick and ill by visiting hospitals and sewing. She died on February 2, 1965, in New York City.