Some call Theresa Faith Cummings “a force” in the best way.
“Aunt Theresa always worked to serve others,” says her niece, Rev. Vanessa R. Cummings of Oxford, Ohio. “She always stood up and spoke up. She could work until two or three in the morning, then be up at six to keep working.”
Cummings couldn’t have slept much to accomplish what she did. Recognized by the Springfield and Central Illinois African American History Museum as a “Civil Rights Legend,” she was also acclaimed by WUIS-FM (now NPR Illinois) as one of the women who “changed Springfield.” She was proud that her family had been in Springfield since the 1830s and worked to help the community in many ways.
With a bachelor’s degree from the University of Winston-Salem State Teachers College and, later, a master’s degree from Southern Illinois University, Cummings applied for a teaching job in Springfield in the 1960s, as she explained in an oral history conducted for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library.
“I was interviewed by the superintendent, and instead of him looking at my qualifications, he wanted to know if I was going to have some children soon, or if I was going to continue to teach. I knew that was not a question that he legally should ask, and I told him it was none of his business.” She wasn’t hired.
Instead, Cummings taught in St. Louis and began studying law at Washington University. She returned home in 1967 when asked to set up Springfield and Sangamon County Community Action Agency’s Neighborhood Center, a program to help neighborhoods around Lincoln, Iles and Palmer schools. The Center worked on a variety of projects, including voter registration, school breakfast and housing, partly because of Cumming’s own experience.
When she returned to Springfield to teach in the 1960s, Cummings searched for a place to live. “I went to see about different apartments (that) would be advertised,” she recalled in her oral history, “and when I got there, all of the sudden they were filled. Some of the apartment buildings weren’t even completed… I filed a lot of suits with the Human Rights Commission here.” They went nowhere.
Still, she fought. Cummings chaired the State Advisory Committee for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, led the Consumer Credit Counseling Service, worked to desegregate the city’s public schools and served on the Illinois Civil Rights Commission, the National Council of Negro Women, the National Association of Business and Professional Women, the Illinois Surgical Treatment Center advisory board, and the Illinois School for the Visually Impaired advisory council, among other efforts.
But she wouldn’t serve on just any group’s board. “I did pick and choose,” Cummings said in her oral history. “I would ask them, ‘Did you want me on there for what I can contribute, or did you want me on there so you could count me being Black and a female?’ Because at that time, there were not that many professional Black women in Springfield.”
After working for the Community Action Agency, Cummings became the assistant director of the Illinois Abandoned Mines Reclamation Council, then the chief equal employment officer for the state’s Department of Natural Resources under Gov. Jim Edgar.
While working, she began a bakery business on the side, Theresa’s Kitchen, which specialized in preservative-free goods. “I only use fresh vegetables and fruit,” she said in her oral history.
Faith and family were also important to Cummings. She was one of seven children and had “about 25 nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews,” said her niece, Rev. Cummings. Together, Theresa and one of her sisters raised a great-niece and great-nephew.
Theresa’s home was the hub for family, who gathered there often or visited.
“Whenever you went to stay with her, it wasn’t like she got sitters for you. You went to meetings with her,” said Cummings. “I think that’s what also inspired so many of our family. We learned how to connect with people and be a part of organizations that are making a difference… it’s the Cummings gene, we’re active in our community.”
Cummings was a longtime member of Springfield’s St. Paul AME Church, which held her homegoing service. “She loved her church,” said her niece. She served on its trustee board, the Promotional Educational Program, as an usher, and as the Underground Railroad chair. “Aunt Theresa worked until her last days,” she said.
Tara McClellan McAndrew met Theresa when they both were members of the same community groups and remembers her as kind and full of history and spunk. Theresa was wise and upfront – she once advised Tara, “I will not go to a meeting any more unless there is an agenda!”
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This article appears in Remembering 2024.
