Lucille Mason Rose

Lucille Mason Rose (September 27, 1920 - August 15, 1987)

Biography

Early life Lucille Mason was born in Richmond, Virginia on September 27, 1920, and moved with her family to Brooklyn, New York at the age of seven. She graduated from Girls' High School in 1937.

Career Rose began her public service career in 1949 as a fiscal clerk in the Department of Social Services. In the 1960s, she became involved with community activism in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood through the Central Brooklyn Coordinating Council (CBCC), with fellow activists like Shirley Chisholm, Almira Kennedy Coursey, and Elsie Richardson. She took night classes at Brooklyn College, and earned a degree in economics in 1963, later going on to earn her master's in manpower planning and economics from the New School in the late 1970s. In 1964, Mayor Robert F. Wagner hired her as the director of the Bedford-Stuyvesant office of the city's Department of Labor, where she helped establish and oversee the Neighborhood Manpower Service Center. She was a founding director of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, and served as the vice-chair for the board from 1983 until her death in 1987. and for other civic and political organizations such as Medgar Evers College, Key Women, the Salvation Army Advisory Committee, the National Council of Negro Women, and St. Mary's Hospital. Shortly before her death, she was also elected president of the Bed-Stuy chapter of the Lioness Club, the women's sector of the Lions Club.

Religion In 1951, Rose converted to Catholicism and began attending Our Lady of Victory Church in Brooklyn. She was an active member of her religious community, and served as the first woman president of the Catholic Interracial Council from 1981 to 1985. In 1977, Rose was named the Alumna of the Year by Brooklyn College. In 1979, she received the "Black Brooklynite" award from the New Muse Community Museum. After serving as the president of the Catholic Interracial Council, Rose was given the John LaFarge Memorial award for her work.

Personal life and death In 1939, Rose married Peyton Rose, a carpenter.

Rose died from a heart attack on August 15, 1987, at Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn. Her funeral was attended by several politicians and public officials, including Edward Koch, David Dinkins, Shirley Chisholm, and Percy Sutton.