YOUNGSTOWN Female letter carrier led way

Some say every person is still not given equal opportunity to all jobs at the local post office.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Women letter carriers are no longer considered out of the ordinary, but in 1965, a petite, black Youngstown woman delivered mail through the rain, sleet, snow, hail and criticism of being the first woman to do so.
Alfred Coward of Youngstown says his mother, the late Thelma Mae Washington Coward, was rearing three teen-age children alone in the early 1960s.
He said she was initially employed as a "salad girl" at an Antone's Restaurant, but decided to take the civil service exam for post office employment in hopes of finding a job that would offer more money.
"When she took the exam, she really thought they would put her inside as a clerk like they had all the rest of the ladies, but [she] was told she would have to carry the mail," Coward said.
"I can still remember her coming home and saying. 'They said I had to walk the beat, but I'm going to do it anyhow.'"
Her route: Coward said that every day for several years his mother, with mailbag on hip, would deliver mail on Garfield Street between Market and Hillman streets and in the 1100 and 1200 blocks on Oak Hill Avenue, but it wasn't easy.
Coward said his mother, eventually called "Top Cat" by her peers for her precision and performance on the job, heard many disparaging remarks.
He said she was told that she was taking jobs away from men and that no woman should be "walking the beat."
Coward also said his mother was short and that made it more difficult for her to drive the mail trucks. He said driving the trucks required her to practically stand up. Many nights, he said, his mother would come home and soak her feet.
Coward, who was 17 at the time, said he was often involved in arguments with other neighborhood teens who had made negative remarks about his mother's profession.
After a few years of carrying the mail, his mother received an inside assignment.
She worked for the Youngstown Post Office for 15 years, retiring after becoming ill with cancer. She died in 1981.
Dispute: Despite her trailblazing efforts, some community members feel the local post office still has not reached its potential for racial diversity.
Seven of those people picketed last week outside the main post office in downtown Youngstown during the unveiling of a commemorative stamp for Roy Wilkins, NAACP executive director from 1955-77.
Staughton Lynd, a spokesman for the pickets, said blacks and Hispanics make up half the city's population and a third of those passing civil service exams, but comprise only 12 percent to 13 percent of the post office's permanent employees.
The pickets called attention to a racial discrimination suit against the local post office with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Patricia E. Davis, Youngstown area postmaster, said she is not aware of any pending complaints of racial discrimination against the post office.
Davis, who is black, said there is a system of checks and balances in place to eliminate discriminatory practices.