Roy E. Norris

Roy E. Norris was born in 1915. After graduating from Morehouse College in 1937, he attended the Howard University Graduate School of Religion and the Yale Divinity School. While at Yale, he met poet and playwright Owen Dodson, then studying in the School of Drama. One summer while students, they worked together at a resort on Long Island. They remained friends and later lived near each other in Brooklyn. Norris left Yale before finishing his degree due to illness.

In 1942, he married his wife, Elizabeth Norris, an archivist. Their son, Donald, was born in 1945. Norris served as industrial secretary for the New Jersey Urban League, based in Newark, from 1944 to 1948. In this role, he was instrumental in the desegregation of several industries that had previously excluded Black workers. In 1946, he was part of the Committee on Household Employment Standards, which focused on issues facing domestic workers. He also created a machinists training program for Black workers in New Jersey and advocated for employment of Black veterans.

Norris died in 1984. His papers are held by the Newark Public Library.