The HistoryMakers

Born in Washington, DC, in December 1937, Yvonne Seon, pioneer in African American Studies curriculum development, was salutatorian of her class at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School of DC. Seon earned a B.A. degree with honors from Allegheny College in 1959, and a year later the M.A. degree as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, with honors from American University in American Government and politics.

That summer, Seon met Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the newly independent Congo, on his only visit to the United States. Proficient in French and with a keen interest in Africa, Seon accepted his offer of a job in the new government. She eventually served as Secretary to the High Commission for the Inga Dam Project, the highest Government position open to a non-citizen, equivalent to an Executive Director. The first American hired by the new government, she managed the Commission and helped assure uninterrupted recordings of technical data needed for dam construction.

Returning from Africa, Dr. Seon was hired through the Minority Affairs Office of the Department of State as Foreign Affairs Officer in the Office of International Conferences. In that capacity, she was appointed by President Lyndon Johnson as Secretary of the U.S. Delegation to the 14th General Assembly of UNESCO, meeting in Paris. Seon was the first African-American and only the second woman to hold this office on a major U.S. delegation.

Seon's career as an educator coincided with her marriage and move to the Dayton, OH area. She was hired at Wilberforce University as Director of Student Life Programs and Instructor of French. She also taught Lingala, a Congo language, at Central State University. The interest of her colleagues in better understanding America's African cultural heritage led her to enter the Union Institute working with her professors to structure what may have been the first Ph.D. program in Black Studies, in 1974. Her doctoral work led to the articulation of a Black Education Program at Wilberforce University and to the realization of the Bolinga Black Cultural Resources Center at Wright State University in Dayton, OH. As the Center's founding Director, she worked with students to create a model program. She was also responsible for adding into the curriculum courses on the Black woman and on the literature of Black writers of French expression.

Returning to the DC area in 1972, Seon taught in the African American Studies Departments of Howard University and the University of Maryland, College Park, after a brief time working for Congressman Charles Diggs (D.-MI), known for his championing of independence in Africa.

A "Call" to ministry at the death of her grandmother led Seon to Howard University Divinity School, where she earned a M.Div. degree in 1981. That year, Seon became the first African American woman to enter Unitarian Universalist Parish Ministry when she was ordained by the Reverend David Eaton at All Soul's Unitarian Church in Washington, DC. Later, she founded on Capitol Hill the first "intentionally diverse new start congregation" in the denomination, and was chosen by her peers as President of Capitol Hill Group Ministries from 1986-1988.

Seon returned to academia in 1993. Currently, she is professor of African American Studies at Prince George's Community College in Largo, Maryland. The mother of three adult offspring, she resides in Hyattsville, Maryland.

Seon was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 14, 2003.