Carol Sibley

Carol Rhodes Sibley (1902-1986), nee Rhodes, was a prominent civic activist in Berkeley, California. Sibley is perhaps best known as a member of the Berkeley School Board from 1961 to 1971, and sometimes its president, during a time when Berkeley became one of the first cities in the country to racially desegregate its schools.[1]:1 With her husband Robert, Sibley was also deeply involved in the community life of the University of California, Berkeley.

Carol Sibley
Born(1902-04-04)April 4, 1902
Died1986(1986-00-00) (aged 83–84)
EducationWellesley College
OccupationCivic activist
Parent(s)Charles Elbert Rhodes and Mary Bates Rhodes
AwardsBenjamin Ide Wheeler Medal, Alumna Achievement Award (Wellesley College)

Biography

Carol Bates Rhodes was born on 4 April 1902[2]:303[3] to Charles Elbert Rhodes and Mary Bates Rhodes (née Mary Williamson Bates, 1868-1944[4]:10).[2]:17,2 She grew up with an older brother (Charles Elbert Rhodes, Jr.) and a younger sister (Ruth Mary Rhodes),[2]:2 in Upstate New York. She graduated in 1919 from Lafayette High School in Buffalo, as valedictorian and class poet.[2]:303 Her father was a Presbyterian minister and "taught every summer at Chautauqua Institution."[2]:7 Houseguests when she was growing up included Norman Thomas and Pearl S. Buck.[2]:24 Sibley began college studies at Wellesley College in 1919, graduating in 1923.[2]:303[5]

From 1923 to 1943 she was married to Paul Johnston, giving birth to two children, Mary Carol (b. 1925) and James Irvin II (b. 1927). They divorced in August, 1943.[2]:303 From 1941 to 1943, Carol Johnston was Alumnae Secretary for Wellesley College, and "travelled to nearly every Wellesley Club in the U.S.A. because alumnae could not come to College and President McAfee felt it was vital that they be kept in touch."[2]:303

On 6 December 1943, in Washington, D.C.,[2]:83,304[6][7] she married Robert Sibley (1881-1958),[8] a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley,[9] who was an executive manager of the California Alumni Association (1923-1949),[10] and later became director and president of the East Bay Regional Park District (1948-1958).[8] She moved to Berkeley to be with him in June, 1944.[2]:304 The Sibleys lived for many years in a house known as Allanoke at the corner of Le Roy Avenue and Ridge Road in Berkeley. The house "in the 1940s and '50s in particular... was a center of UC Berkeley social life and was designated a city of Berkeley Landmark in 1986."[9] In 1958, when Carol and Robert Sibley were traveling together in France, Robert died unexpectedly of a heart attack [2]:100

Sibley was elected to the Berkeley School Board in 1961, giving the board "for the first time... a four-to-one liberal majority."[11]:64 Because of their support for school desegregation, Sibley and another board member, Sherman J. Maisel, were subjected to a recall election on October 6, 1964, in which they retained their seats, and their detractors experienced a "rout," by a margin of about 23,000 to 15,000 votes.[11]:66

Sibley received the 1973 Benjamin Ide Wheeler Medal for distinguished service to the Berkeley community.[2]:inset272–273 Sibley received the 1975 alumna achievement award from Wellesley College.[5]

Sibley was the focus of an oral history published in 1980 by the Regional Oral History Office of the University of California, Berkeley, based on nine interviews conducted from 21 April to 3 August 1978.[2]

Sibley died in 1986, and a memorial service was held at First Congregational Church.[1]:329

Works by Sibley

Oral history through University of California Berkeley:

  • Sibley, Carol (1980). Carol Rhodes Sibley--building Community Trust, Berkeley School Integration and Other Civic Endeavors, 1943-1978: An Interview. Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. FULL PDF

Other works:

Sibley's oral history states that wrote "about 48 articles for the California Monthly on subjects of special interest to women, 1944-1949."[2]:305

Sources

References
  1. Hampson Eget, Patricia Louise (2011). Envisioning Progressive Communities: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Liberalism, Berkeley, California and Montclair, New Jersey, 1920–1970 [doctoral dissertation]. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
  2. Sibley, Carol (1980). Carol Rhodes Sibley--building Community Trust, Berkeley School Integration and Other Civic Endeavors, 1943-1978: An Interview. Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. FULL PDF
  3. Sibley, Carol Rhodes. Carol Sibley papers, 1922-1984 (bulk 1950-1980). Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  4. Stevens, Lewis T. (19 January 1945). "Class Notes 91". Princeton Alumni Weekly. princeton alumni weekly. 45 (14): 10. Retrieved 6 October 2019. In this three-paragraph report about her death in her husband's college alumni magazine, Mary Bates Rhodes is reported to have been born on 26 May 1868, married on 11 September 1894, and died on 12 December 1944.
  5. "Carol Rhodes Sibley '23". Wellesley College. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  6. Anonymous (6 December 1943). "Robert Sibley Weds in East: U.C. Alumni Executive Marries Wellesley Graduates' Official". Oakland Tribune. 139 (159). p. 15C. Retrieved 2 November 2019. (full page view showing Dec. 6 date on page) Article begins "The marriage in Washington, D.C., yesterday of Robert Sibley... and Mrs. Carol Rhodes Johnston... was announced in Berkeley today...."
  7. In her oral history, Sibley (1980) states that she was married "In '43, December. We never can remember whether it was December 6 or 7. It was either Pearl Harbor Day or the day before... there in Washington [D.C.]... I've got it somewhere" (p. 83); On page 304 of the oral history, her "Vitae... prepared for Wellesley College Alumnae Association, 1975" lists December 6 as the wedding day; The Dec. 6 Oakland Tribune, a daily newspaper published in the afternoons, stated that the marriage had been "yesterday" in Washington, D.C.
  8. Thompson, Daniella (21 March 2008). "East Bay Then and Now: Allenoke Manor Was a Scene of Hospitality for 5 Decades. Category: Home & Garden Columns from The Berkeley Daily Planet". Berkeley Daily Planet. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  9. Finacom, Steven (7 February 2019). "Berkeley, a Look Back: Sibley home site of elite 1944 shindig". East Bay Times. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  10. Thompson, Daniella. "Berkeley Landmarks: Allanoke (Allen G. Freeman House)". berkeleyheritage.com. Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
  11. Rorabaugh, W. J. (1989). Berkeley at War: The 1960s. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198022527.
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