Dr. Vera Pearl (Poe) Swann

Mrs. Swann, 91, formerly of Cheraw, South Carolina services are rendered by Flemming Funerals-Cheraw. 

OBITUARY

Dr. Vera Poe Swann 

Vera Pearl Poe Swann was born to Warren Poe and Marian Poe on April 11, 1931 and departed on November 10, 2022.

One of three sisters and a brother, she was born and educated in Cheraw, South Carolina. She grew up in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church. She was educated at the Coulter Academy and at Johnson C. Smith University where she met Darius Leander Swann.

The couple were married in June 1952 and began work as the first African American missionaries of the Presbyterian Church to India, settling at Ewing Christian College in Allahabad and developed a welcoming, pluralistic approach to evangelism. Vera taught Bible, organized Jamna Christian Basic School and started a shelter for homeless students.

Five years later during their furlough leave, the Swann's traveled across Central Africa from Kenya to Cameroon, learning much about the church in East Africa. The family then returned to Charlotte, NC, and Johnson C. Smith University, at which time they became the proud parents of two children, James (1958), and Edith (1959) and she served as a secretary in the religious education department.

When they attempted to send their son James to 1st grade at Seversville Elementary School in Charlotte, NC, an integrated school near their home, their son returned home in tears, with a note from the principal explaining that his family needed to send him to an all-black school down the road before they could apply to transfer him to an integrated school.

That note launched the Swann's on a legal odyssey that saw them become the lead plaintiffs in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, a 1971 Supreme Court case in which the justices upheld courtordered busing in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district and opened the gates for the use of busing as a desegregation tool nationwide. Although subsequent court rulings dismantled busing programs around the country, the system became a source of civic pride during the nearly three decades it lasted in Charlotte. “Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s proudest achievement of the past 20 years is not the city’s impressive skyline or its strong, growing economy,” the Charlotte Observer wrote in a 1984 editorial. “Its proudest achievement is its fully integrated schools.”

From North Carolina, Rev. Swann and his family had opportunities to live in New York, Hawaii and finally India. The Swann's spent more than a decade in India, where he conducted his research for a Doctorate in Asian theater, co-founded a Christian drama program that told Bible stories through Indian music and theater and later co-write a book, “Indian Theatre: Traditions of Performance.”

In May 1966, Vera led the Charlotte-area Church Women United, alongside other community organizations, to mobilize Black domestic workers. She later served in the Stony Point Centers’ experimental drama group, taught public school in Kaneohe HI in the Black Studies Program at Northern Virginia Community College. In 1978, Vera became a proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

In semi-retirement the Vera and Darius organized the Maria Fearing Fund, supporting spiritual growth and cultural exchange between Africa and the United States. Vera and Darius were also founding members of Burke Presbyterian Church in Burke VA in 1980. In May 2013, Vera received an Honorary Doctorate from Interdenominational Theological Center Theological Seminary in Atlanta GA.

In 2018, Vera and Darius moved to Centreville Virginia with their daughter. Dr. Vera P. Swann is survived by her daughter, Dr. Edith Swann, her son, James Swann of Atlanta GA; three grandchildren, Darin, Jamie, and Darius Swann; and two great-granddaughters, Jayden and Brailyn Swann as well as a host of relatives and friends.

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