Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, former Philadelphia deputy mayor, Penn professor, and director of the Black Leadership Forum, has died at 89
She dedicated her life to seeking social justice and assuring civil rights, writing books, and speaking out often on topics she said needed to be addressed.
Yvonne Scruggs-Leftwich, 89, formerly of Philadelphia, deputy mayor under Mayor W. Wilson Goode, former professor at the University of Pennsylvania, government executive for President Jimmy Carter and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, longtime director of the Black Leadership Forum, author, and community activist, died Friday, Sept. 16, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease at Morningside House of Friendship retirement community in Hanover, Md.
Passionate and outspoken about civil rights and social justice as well as active throughout her life in academia, government, and business, Dr. Scruggs-Leftwich made it clear that her goal in everything she did was to make things better for everyone. “Personally and racially, our enemies must be forgiven,” she said on her website. “Our aim must be to create a world of fellowship and justice.”
In that quest, in many roles and inspired by her activist mother, she influenced government policy, created educational curriculum, informed the public as a spokeswoman and commentator, and wrote countless articles, chapters, policy reports, and books about the issues she said needed serious attention — civil rights, community development, youth support, housing, and other matters.
She taught city planning and related topics at Penn in the 1970s, and served as deputy mayor under Goode from 1985 to 1987. She was executive director of Carter’s urban and regional policy group in the 1970s, deputy assistant secretary for community planning and development at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1979 to 1981, New York state’s commissioner in the division of housing and community renewal under Cuomo from 1983 to 1985, and executive director and chief operating officer of the Black Leadership Forum from 1998 to 2008.
She told The Inquirer in 1985 that she accepted both criticism and praise for her tough-love style of management. “I don’t shirk responsibility, and I don’t shrink from change,” she said. “I’m not a hand-holder, but I am sensitive to people’s legitimate personal needs.”
She also taught at Howard University, George Washington University, and the State University of New York, was on the advisory council of Your Real Stories Inc., launched the Quantum Opportunities after-school program for at-risk teens in St. Petersburg, Fla., and taught at the National Labor College in Maryland until her retirement in 2010. She co-owned banking corporations in New York, consulted on municipal finance issues, and was a trustee and board member of many organizations.
“Her civil rights activities informed all of her relationships,” said her daughter, Rebecca Perry-Glickstein. “That made us all sensitive to that and active whatever that meant for us. For her, it meant leveraging her contacts to help people. She would say, ‘I’m having this fight.’”
Dr. Scruggs-Leftwich published Consensus and Compromise: Creating the First National Urban Policy under President Carter in 2006, and Sound Bites of Protest in 2008. She won many awards, including the 2007 Front Page Award from the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild, and the U.S. House of Representatives honored her with a 2013 resolution that said: “Her dedication to advancing the rights of others through public and community service makes her an inspirational leader.”
Born June 24, 1933, in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and raised in Buffalo, Yvonne Scruggs was called Bonnie by family and friends and showed an early affinity for serious work and attention to detail. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from North Carolina Central University in 1955 and studied international organizations on a Fulbright fellowship in Germany and a graduate scholarship at Johns Hopkins University.
She added a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Minnesota in 1958 and later a doctorate in city and regional planning and urban policy from Penn.
She met Sherman Perry at North Carolina Central, and they married, moved to West Philadelphia, and had daughters Kate and Rebecca. After a divorce, she married the Rev. Edward V. Leftwich Jr. and welcomed his children, Tienne and Edward III, into her family. Her husband and former husband died earlier.
Dr. Scruggs-Leftwich enjoying taking her children and grandsons to the theater and musicals in Philadelphia. She embraced her daughter Rebecca’s love of horses, encouraged her to ride, and took the family to the Devon Horse Show for years.
She sang, played piano and guitar, spoke German, and bonded with her second husband in their love of music. But she never strayed far from what she considered her main objective. “She always went on about setting things right in this country,” Perry-Glickstein said.
In an online tribute, a friend said: “A trailblazer extraordinaire, Yvonne left us all with an impeccable blueprint of service, selflessly guiding, empowering and illuminating the path forward for so many great and small.”
In addition to her daughters, Dr. Scruggs-Leftwich is survived by three grandsons, two sisters, a brother, and other relatives.
No services were held at her request.
Donations in her name may be made to the National Council of Negro Women, 633 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20004; the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, 1050 Connecticut Ave., NW, Fifth Floor, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20036; and Your Real Stories.