In January, Joyce Colemon of Waynesboro stepped down as president of the local branch of the NAACP after 14 years.
While no longer leading the Waynesboro branch, Colemon will not be stepping down anytime soon from her work in civil activism.
She will continue to serve her community through the local branch she helped found 45 years ago.
Colemon, who grew up in western Albemarle County one of 13 children, graduated Jackson Price Burley High School in 1966, a year before the final class of seniors graduated.
“I liked it, because, back then, your teachers were like your parents away from home. They were there to make sure you learned,” Colemon said.
She said her teachers wanted their students to learn because they had persevered under a segregated public school system in America.
Her interest for civil activism was sparked by her government teacher in high school, but her parents also encouraged their children to speak up and do what they could.
Her mother encouraged her children to read as much as possible, but the books Black students received in school were hand-me-down books. So she approached school administration and asked for a book mobile in their neighborhood, and they provided it.
Once Colemon did not actually read the book she gave a book report on in front of her class, and her English teacher made her sit down, because he knew she had not read the book. He knew because he had read all of the books that Colemon and her classmates had to select from for book reports.
“So, that taught me a lesson,” she said.
Their teachers knew they could do what was asked of them in class, and Colemon and her classmates did not have a choice not to meet expectations.
Schools were segregated during Colemon’s childhood.
“But we had powerful teachers who wanted us to succeed,” she said.
In a 1960 referendum vote, Charlottesville voters approved razing of Vinegar Hill, a predominantly Black neighborhood founded after the Civil War containing Black-owned businesses. The neighborhood was leveled in 1964 to make way for redevelopment.
The situation sparked Colemon’s civic activism as her teachers and other adults in her life set good examples by protesting and speaking up about Vinegar Hill.
After high school, her sister, Brenda, and brother-in-law, Ken, were already living in Waynesboro. An older sister and her husband also lived in Waynesboro, and Colemon would often visit.
When Colemon married, the couple settled and raised two sons in Waynesboro, but the marriage ended in divorce after 11 years.
Colemon later taught GED courses at Waynesboro High School.
While focused on teaching and being present for her sons, she met Paul Colemon at church. They soon married, honeymooned in Jamaica and had a son together. The couple bought a home in Waynesboro, which Colemon still lives in.
When she turned 18 years old, Colemon’s mother made sure that she became an official member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP champions justice for all, regardless of race.
In 1979, Colemon was instrumental in starting the Waynesboro branch of the NAACP with Lillian Clark. The national NAACP told the women they needed 100 signatures of individuals interested in memberships to begin a charter branch. After Colemon and Clark journeyed to Baltimore to present the list of potential local members, Clark became the first branch president of Waynesboro.
“Once we became that charter, we were good to go,” she said.
At a national NAACP convention in 1979, Colemon was presented with the “Million Dollar Medallion Award.”
She held various roles in the chapter, including vice president, which she was in 2015 when she was voted to serve as president.
Colemon’s words when she speaks at local NAACP events have often proved prophetic, including when she stated that she considered retired Virginia Tech professor, activist and poet Nikki Giovanni to be capable of prophesy. Giovanni spoke at a Waynesboro’s Freedom Fund Banquet in 1994.
In 2024, at the chapter’s annual fundraising banquet, Colemon spoke about “The lights are on.”
She chose to step down and allow a new individual to serve as president in 2025. Members voted Rev. Roosevelt Miller as president.
Her other community work has included being the first Black woman to serve on the Blue Ridge Community College board as the Waynesboro representative, which she did for 16 years. She spoke at the college’s 2019 commencement ceremony and was awarded an honorary doctorate.
In her work with the NAACP, Colemon has met many notable Americans, including Civil Rights activist and legislator John Lewis, the Rev. Al Sharpton, former Virginia Gov. Doug Wilder, former Waynesboro mayor J.B. Yount, actor Danny Glover and former U.S. President Barak Obama.
Colemon remains a Gold Life member of the NAACP and said that the work of civil activism is never done. As long as organizations like the NAACP are necessary, the work will never be done.
“To me, [the NAACP is] still important because the country, especially now, is going through a lot more going backwards, and our theme has always been to move forward with equality and justice and inclusion for all people.”
Colemon said everyone, regardless of ethnicity, has gifts to offer society.
“And, when we go backwards, that just tears us down,” she said.
Despite efforts by the Trump Administration to eliminate diversity, inclusion and equality in the United States, Colemon said we are not going back.
“We’ve got to continue forward.”
A light in the dark is the fact that Waynesboro’s first black mayor, Kenny Lee, was selected in January 2025.
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Rebecca Barnabi
