The Mary S. Nelums Foundation recently awarded Dr. Olga Osby with the L.C. Dorsey Social Activist Award.
The award is named in the honor of Dr. L.C. Dorsey as a public act of gratitude for someone who has dedicated her life to the service of others through social activism.
Presenters said social activism is the compelling force that drives progressive change in thoughts, beliefs and attitudes based on what is viewed as fair and right for all. Lifelong social activists do not ask for the spotlight or awards for themselves, but they insist on correcting the social ills that plague our communities.
Dr. Dorsey’s life has been a working example and shows an unmistakable understanding of Frederick Douglas’ reminder in 1857 that “Power concedes nothing without demand, it never has and it never will.” As with all change agents seeking to alter the status quo, the social activists often pay a tremendous price in their personal lives, and it has been no different with Dr. Dorsey. Yet through it all, she continues the struggle and remains true to her philosophy, beliefs, and commitment to bring about social change benefitting all of society.
L.C. Dorsey was born in the Mississippi Delta and received her early education in a series of one-room schools on various Delta plantations. Her interest in the human condition began in those humble schools under the tutelage of strong Black women and loving parents who taught her to value learning as the ticket to a better life. As a high school dropout, she went back to school at age 31 to get a GED and to get her life back on track.
Dr. Osby is a native of Shreveport, Louisiana. She is the daughter of Fodie and Susie S. Osby and the sister of Rev. Michael Lewis and the late Jerome Lewis. Dr. Osby is currently an Associate Professor at Jackson State University’s School of Social Work. She teaches in the BSW, MSW and Ph.D. level programs. She earned her BA, MSW and DSW degrees from Howard University in Washington, DC. She began her teaching career as an adjunct professor at Howard University. For seven years, Dr. Osby was on faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an Assistant Professor and for two of those years, she served as the Interim Director of Field Instruction.
In 2001, Dr. Osby became the Director of Social Work at Mississippi Valley State University. In 2003, she accepted her current position at Jackson State University. Her research interest has involved kinship care among African American families, African
American grandfathers, substance abuse among rural African American women, and human rights and social justice issues with immigrant children and the formerly incarcerated.
Dr. Osby is grateful for the opportunities she has had to work with great students and faculty at both MVSU and JSU as well as the wonderful social work and human rights community in Mississippi. Dr. Osby began her social work career as a community organizer working with families in public housing developments in Washington, DC. She has had a strong belief that it is vital for social work students to directly and actively engage in community development, social justice and advocacy activities as part of their social work curriculum.
Over the past several years, Dr. Osby has collaborated with the following agencies and organizations to engage students in such projects as organizing a domestic violence town hall meeting in Mound Bayou, Mississippi with the St. Gabriel Mercy Center in Mound Bayou and the Southern Institute on Mental Health Advocacy, Research and Training (SMHART); volunteering with Judge Jaribu Hill and the Mississippi Work- er’s Rights Center on the issue of substandard housing as a human rights issue; working with undergraduate students to host a town hall meeting on JSU’s campus with the Mississippi Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on racial profiling in Madison, Hinds and Rankin Counties in Mississippi; and raising her students’ awareness to the issue of the Schoolhouse to Jailhouse Pipeline through presentations by Southern Echo. Dr. Osby is currently working to develop collaborative projects for students in the School of Social Work with the Nollie Jenkins Family Center, Mississippi Families for Kids, and the Mississippi Worker’s Rights Center. Dr. Osby is also proud of her students and their participation in various petition drives and marches to free and seek a full pardon for the Scott Sisters.
Social Work as a profession is rooted in the social justice and human rights movements. Dr. Osby has worked to keep her students, and the focus of her teaching, grounded in the origins of the profession.
