Norma Wagner

Norma Wagner
Born
Norma Jean English

(1928-04-22)April 22, 1928
Morris, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedSeptember 20, 1998(1998-09-20) (aged 70)
New York, U.S.
Other namesNorma Meminger
OccupationCivil rights activist

Norma Jean English Wagner Meminger (April 22, 1928 – September 20, 1998) was an American civil rights activist. She was one of the white Freedom Riders arrested in the American South in 1961.

Early life and education

English was born in Morris, Pennsylvania and raised in Avon, New York and Exeter, New York, the daughter of Kenneth F. and Alma Frances Northrup English.[1][2] In 1947, she graduated from the New York State School for the Blind in Batavia.

Career

Wagner hoped to become a teacher, but blind people were barred from teaching in New York public schools at the time. Hoping to change the law, she was legislative chair of the Empire State Association of the Blind in 1958,[3][4] and lobbied in Albany.[5]

Wagner became a Freedom Rider in 1961, trained in non-violent resistance by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She traveled to bus terminals in the American South, to desegregate waiting rooms and lunch counters. In Jackson, Mississippi, other members of her group were arrested, but police declined to arrest her, as they were "wary of bad publicity".[6] At the same protest, they declined to arrest an Indonesian man, because they were unsure of his racial status under Jim Crow laws.[7][8]

On a second trip to Jackson,[9] Wagner and Earl Bohannon Jr., a young Black man from Chicago, sat together smoking and drinking milkshakes at the bus depot for several hours, then continued on to New Orleans, where they also succeeded in having coffee together with another Black activist, Alice Thompson, at the city's main bus depot.[10][11] However she was "finally arrested" in New Orleans the next day, for distributing leaflets without a permit.[12][13] She was released on bail,[14] and given parole.[15]

Wagner's activism for racial justice continued at home in Rochester, New York.[16] She co-chaired the Action Council[17] and the housing committee of CORE, and protested United States involvement in the Vietnam War,[18] school segregation, and housing discrimination.[19] "Are we granting Negroes the privilege of living on our neighborhood? No, it is their right to live here. It has always been their right to live here," she wrote in 1962.[20] In 1964 she attended the American Council of the Blind meeting in Niagara Falls.[21]

Publications

Wagner was a staff correspondent for The Rochester Voice, a local civil rights newspaper.[22]

  • "Rochester North or South" (1962)[23]
  • "Commentary: Ode to a Neighborhood" (1962)[24]

Personal life

Norma English married Milton Wagner in 1949.[25] They were both members of Temple B'rith Kodesh.[9] He died in 1980; she remarried in 1983, to widowed Vietnam War veteran Bill Meminger. They were both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[26] She died in 1998, at the age of 70, survived by her second husband and four sons.[27][28]

References

  1. ^ "Obituary for Frances English". Democrat and Chronicle. 1997-09-28. p. 26. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ 1930 and 1940 United States censuses, via Ancestry.
  3. ^ "State Blind Assn. Meets Tomorrow". The Times-Union. 1958-10-16. p. 38. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "Blind Can 'See', but Wish Others Would". Democrat and Chronicle. 1958-09-10. p. 23. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ "Skepticism in New York". Braille Monitor: 28–29. April 1958 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ Arsenault, Raymond (2011-03-11). Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. Oxford University Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-19-979296-2.
  7. ^ Still, Larry. "Rides Cost State $100,000" Jet (August 17, 1961): 14.
  8. ^ "Indonesian in 'Rider' Group Spared by Police in Miss". The Town Talk. 1961-07-31. p. 13. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b "Blind Freedom Rider Says She'll Try Again". Democrat and Chronicle. 1961-07-31. p. 17. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "N. O. Police Ignore Blind N.Y. 'Rider'". The Town Talk. 1961-08-07. p. 22. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "Riders Mix at New Orleans". The Vicksburg Post. 1961-08-07. p. 1. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Blind White Freedom Rider Finally Arrested" Jet (August 24, 1961): 6.
  13. ^ "Integrationist Cases Continued in Orleans; Blind Woman, Six Others". The Times. 1961-08-10. p. 12. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Tired, Blind Freedom Rider Back". Democrat and Chronicle. 1961-08-15. p. 5. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Blind Woman, Riders Go On Trial Today". The Daily Advertiser. 1961-08-09. p. 2. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Crowd of 200 Protests Use of Police Dogs". Democrat and Chronicle. 1961-08-20. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Vogler, Bill (1963-08-06). "Bias Foes Threaten Picketing of Construction Sites". Democrat and Chronicle. p. 40. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "End Your Silence!!". Democrat and Chronicle. 1965-10-24. p. 98. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  19. ^ Memmott, Jim (2023-01-06). "They made our community proud: Meet the 2022 Class of Remarkable Rochesterians". Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved 2026-01-20.
  20. ^ Wagner, Norma. "Commentary: Ode to a Neighborhood" The Rochester Voice 30(7)(July 14, 1962): 9.
  21. ^ Youngstrom, Judy (1964-07-25). "How the Sightless Learn to 'See' Again". Democrat and Chronicle. p. 13. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ Masthead, The Rochester Voice 30(7)(July 14, 1962): 2.
  23. ^ Wagner, Norma. "Rochester North or South" The Rochester Voice 30(7)(July 14, 1962): 5.
  24. ^ Wagner, Norma. "Commentary: Ode to a Neighborhood" The Rochester Voice 30(7)(July 14, 1962): 9.
  25. ^ "Marriage Licenses". Democrat and Chronicle. 1949-09-27. p. 16. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ "Clown credits family, church for joy". The Times-Union. 1996-07-22. p. 12. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. ^ "Obituary for Norma Jean Meminger". Democrat and Chronicle. 1998-09-22. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
  28. ^ Kurycki, Mary Rita (1977-01-09). "'If the program can help my son, I have to try it'". Democrat and Chronicle. pp. 1C, 3C. Retrieved 2026-01-20 – via Newspapers.com.
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