Sadie Bell - Beloit NAACP President

The Beloit chapter of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) was organized in the fall of 1919 and has been in existence since that time. The mission of the NAACP is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons as well as to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination. Sadie Bell was president of the Beloit chapter of the NAACP for eight years and was dedicated in her drive for racial equality.

Sadie Bell was born in Pontotoc, Miss., in 1910. As a young child she moved with her family to Beloit, settling in a home on Athletic Ave. She was a lifelong member of Emmanuel Baptist Church.

Miss Bell worked at the women's clothing store, Clara Stone's, for 22 years and also worked at Sears, Freeman Shoes, and Carlyle Nursing Home. She is recognized as a pioneer in the breaking of the color line of her day by becoming a successful retail sales person. In the 1950’s president Raymond Wright placed emphasis on desegregation, focusing on downtown department stores and the lack of African American sales people. With the help of Reverend Oliver Gibson and Reverend U.S. Pride, several African Americans were placed in the downtown stores, Sadie Bell being one of the first.

Miss Bell championed the cause of equal rights early on, even before the agitated 1960s. She was involved in Beloit's first sit-in by African-Americans at Kresge's restaurant. Despite personal threats, Sadie persevered, successfully causing the restaurant to open its facilities to all Beloiters regardless of race. Committed to the cause of civil rights, Miss Bell marched in Montgomery, Alabama, at great personal risk, and was present in Washington D.C. for Dr. Martin Luther King's “I Have a Dream” speech.

But there was much more to Sadie than protest and activism. Gentle but determined, she devoted much of her spare time volunteering for different organizations around Beloit. In 1980 she was recognized by the Beloit Daily News as Volunteer of the Month. 

Sadie Bell was truly a pioneer of the community and her example, personality, and efforts were instrumental in awakening the community to the necessary and justified implementation of racial equality for all people. Miss Sadie Bell died in June of 1992. She was inducted in the Beloit Historical Society Hall of Fame 1997.

This information was taken from the following article, Black History Month Profiles,
Beloit Daily News, February 9, 2007.