Hester Suggs Papers, 1943-2016 | University of Illinois Archives

Adiminsrative/Biographical History: Hester Nelson Suggs was born in 1928 in Champaign-Urbana. She has a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Illinois. In 1948 she married her husband, Raymond Eugene Suggs, a photographer with the Courier Newspaper. She was principal of Booker T. Washington Elementary School in Champaign for 22 years. Before that, she taught at Dr. Howard School and was the first Black teacher at Leal Elementary School. She has attended Bethel A.M.E. Church her entire life. She helped AfricanAmerican students at the University of Illinois through her church when blacks could not live on campus. In the 1990s Suggs served in the Champaign County African-American History Committee, writing articles on local African-American history for the Through the Years newsletter series.