Willie Mae 'Ankie' Jones Kirk: A Legacy of Education and Civil Rights (1921–2013)

Willie Mae “Ankie” Jones Kirk, an African American educator and civil rights leader in the Austin community, was born on February 4, 1921, in Manor, Travis County, Texas, to Henry and Sarah Jones. Willie Mae and her twin brother, Willie B., were the second to last children of fourteen born to their parents. Early in life she lived on her parents’ farm, where her father owned a sorghum syrup mill. Her parents died when she was very young, and by the time of the 1930 census, Willie Mae was living in the household of one of her older sisters in Travis County. Although she only knew her father as a child, she credited him for installing community values of giving to those in need. By the early 1940s Willie Mae had graduated from the segregated Anderson High School on Austin’s East Side, and the 1940 census listed her residing in the household of another older sister and working part-time as a maid in a private home in Austin. Musically talented, she also sang in different locales and in 1943 performed at a USO show at Camp Swift. She declined an offer to tour overseas with a USO band and instead attended Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) on a music scholarship. She earned her bachelor of science degree in social science at Sam Huston in 1947. She later also did graduate studies in education at Prairie View A&M College (now Prairie View A&M University) and the University of Texas at Austin.

While attending Sam Huston College, Willie Mae Jones met fellow student Lee Andrew Kirk of San Antonio, and in 1944 the couple married. They had four children—Saundra, Connie, Lee, and Ron Kirk, whose political career spanned from being the first Black mayor of a major Texas city (two- terms as Dallas mayor) to President Barack Obama's appointee to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.

After graduating from Sam Huston, Willie Mae Kirk started her career as an educator, a position she held until her retirement in 1982. In 1955 she taught fifth grade in East Austin’s segregated Rosewood Elementary School. Her activism during the 1950s involved her commitment to ensuring health rights for groups of color. When polio afflicted children in Austin, she convinced the segregated local board of the March of Dimes to accept her into the group. She also organized her sorority sisters of the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., to collect donations for the historically-Black East Austin.

Kirk continued to push for civil rights in the Austin area throughout the 1960s. She was an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). During this time she led the Mothers’ Action Council to organize protests against a local East Austin skating rink that discriminated against Black people. Their protests resulted in the shutting down of the rink called Ice Palace. Kirk also lobbied to prompt the city of Austin to install a traffic light for students at an East Austin school to help them safely cross the street. Prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, she worked to repeal the poll tax and register African Americans to vote. Austin’s city council appointed her to its first Human Rights Commission in 1968. Part of her responsibilities included serving on an ad hoc committee to address a race riot that had occurred due to attempts to desegregate businesses in the University of Texas vicinity.

In 1971 city officials appointed Kirk to Austin’s Library Commission, a position she held until 1983. While on the Library Commission, she investigated racial problems in the library system. In the 1970s she led a movement to save the Austin-owned Carver Library of African American History when the city of Austin wanted to close the branch due to a resolution, drafted by the director of libraries to the city council in 1972, that stated that the George Washington Carver Branch Library was substandard and should be demolished. The resolution recommended that the library be replaced with a mobile unit on Rosewood Avenue. Kirk organized opposition by East Austin residents to the proposal and spearheaded a fundraising campaign that saved the Carver Library. A new library building adjacent to the old Carver Library opened in 1979, and the old building was remodeled and opened as the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, heralded as the “first African-American neighborhood museum in Texas,” in 1980. A 1998 bond initiative further expanded the museum and Carver Library.

After her husband’s death in 1982, Willie Mae Kirk continued her community activism and was honored a year later for her generosity. In its “tribute to black women,” in the February 13, 1983, edition of the Austin American-Statesman, Kirk articulated her philosophy: “If you have anything, you have enough to share with somebody.” She lived by the motto and carried it out. During the course of her life she took in about twenty people in need and also donated money, clothing, and other items to needy families.

In addition to being active in the NAACP, Kirk held memberships in a number of other organizations, including the National Council of Negro Women, Girl Scouts of America, the Washington Heights/Holy Cross Neighborhood Club, and the Town Lake Chapter of The Links, Inc. She was also a member of The Church of the New Testament in Austin. She worked in the political campaigns of Wilhelmina Delco, Ann Richards, J. J. “Jake” Pickle, and others.

During the course of her life, Kirk received awards from local and national organizations, including Huston-Tillotson University, Austin Independent School District, United Way, Salvation Army, National Foundation for the March of Dimes, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the National Council of Negro Women. In 1994 she was inducted, with Barbara Jordan, into the National Women of Achievement Hall of Fame. She received the Arthur B. DeWitty and Velma Overton Award from the Austin chapter of the NAACP in 1997. That same year the Austin Villager honored her with its Living Legend Award. In 2002 the Austin Area Urban League named her the recipient of the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. Other prestigious awards include the Texas Legislative Black Caucus Outstanding Texan Award and a Martin Luther King Humanitarian Award.Her final recognition came in 2012, when the city of Austin renamed an East Austin library the Willie Mae Kirk Branch in her honor.

Willie Mae Jones Kirk died in Austin on September 28, 2013. She was survived by her children, Saundra, Connie, and Ron; four grandchildren; and six great grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, son Lee, and all of her siblings. Kirk was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Austin.