Marietta in History
Kathryn Roberson Woods
1908-1987
Kathryn Roberson Woods was a teacher, churchwoman, civil rights activist and mentor. She was the wife of principal M. J. Woods, the first African-American principal of a Marietta high school, and together they were a powerhouse in Marietta's civil rights movement.
Mrs. Woods organized the Cobb County Council of Colored Parents and Teachers, serving as its president in the 1930s. She was national membership chair of the NAACP, a member of the Cobb NAACP and chairwoman of the Cobb chapter of the Georgia Human Rights Council.
Because of her dedicated efforts, the Marietta YWCA and the Atlanta Butler Street YWCA forged an alliance. In 1944 she helped convince Marietta's leadership that black children needed a swimming pool. A member of the YWCA board, she helped to organize the biracial Women to Serve All People, which recruited low-income girls to participate in YWCA programs without charge.
Mrs. Woods was the first African-American member of the Cobb County Church Women United, serving as president and named as Valiant Woman of the Year in 1980. One of her most prestigious honors came in 1981, when she was given the WXIA-TV Atlanta community service award.
Lillian Corrigan was a white activist who described Mrs. Woods as "always in the forefront of everything…a leader, my mentor." Noting that Mrs. Woods was tireless and humble in her efforts to secure integration, Mrs. Corrigan once remarked, "Kathryn, how can you let people use you like that?" Mrs. Woods replied, "Lil, I don't mind being used when I know I'm being used and it's for the good of my people."
Mrs. Woods is lovingly remembered and her work is commemorated every year by a scholarship given in her name by the Friends of M. J. and Kathryn Woods Committee.
Scott, Thomas A. Cobb County, Georgia and the Origins of the Suburban South.