Mary Anne Adams

Mary Anne Adams, MSW, (born September 25, 1954) is an African American lesbian activist, social worker, and public health researcher who has focused on the health disparities within the lesbian and Black community. She also works at Georgia State University as the Director of the Community Engagement Core. Adams is most known for being the founder of ZAMI NOBLA (National Organization of Black Lesbians on Aging), an organization that provides resources to aid the coming-of-age process for Black lesbians over the age of 40.

Early life

Adams was born on September 25, 1954, as the second oldest of 10 children in Oxford, Mississippi, specifically Freeman's Town, just soon after the start of the United States Civil Rights Movement. As a child, when she was not in school, she was spending her summers at her grandmother's (whom she was named after) house reading anything she could get her hands on. Adams used reading as a means of mental escape from her feelings of seclusion. In 1971, when she was 16 years old, Adams went on to study social work and sociology at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and eventually graduated at the age of 19. She later earned her master's degree in social work at Georgia State University in 2002. When she was young, her stepfather, Bubba, who adopted her, was hit and killed by a train. In her mid-twenties, her mother died, due to ovarian cancer at the age of 43. These events resulted in her assuming the responsibility of taking care of her three younger siblings.

Activism Adam's activism journey began when she was 12 years old in her hometown. A minister named Reverend Wayne Johnson launched the "Black House" where civil rights activists, social workers, organizations, attorneys, and students came together organize plans.