Deloris Rome Hudson devotes her life to social activism

Since Deloris Rome Hudson was a young woman, she’s seen the world as it is — but with the potential for change.

As a six-time Democratic party delegate, retired teacher and representative for the Ohio Education Association (OEA), Hudson looks to education and politics for the betterment of her community and American society. 

Hudson’s family moved to Hamilton when she was just four years old. She spent her formative years learning and growing up there. She said she always had the natural inclination to lend a hand where it was needed. 

“I’ve always been one to help,” Hudson said. “I think I am who I am because of the people who helped me. So I thought I should pay it forward and help others as much as I could.” 

When Hudson turned 18 and was able to vote, she took an interest in politics. She said although her parents weren’t active in the party, she knew they were Democrats. So she became an active member of the Butler County Democratic Party. 

“[My parents] weren’t necessarily active, but they pushed me to make sure I was actually expressing their concerns whenever I went to meetings or rallies,” Hudson said. 

After graduating from high school, Hudson went on to study home economics at Miami University. Her experience there was marked by the times when social change and activism on campus and across the country were at a high point. 

In 1967, Hudson’s freshman year, the Black Student Action Association (BSAA) was formed, and she stayed active in the association throughout her college career. In 1970, Hudson and other BSAA members joined the Vietnam War protestors at Rowan Hall occupation on campus.

“I was in the building when they were protesting … but I had to go to the restroom,” Hudson said. “When I got back, I found out that all the students that were in the building were arrested.” 

Their protest spurred action in other parts of the state, including at Kent State University, where the Ohio National Guard fired on peaceful Vietnam protesters. 

“The 60s and the early 70s were truly a time of conflict and protest,” Hudson said. “So to be on campus, to be around people that were steering some of the events, was something I always remember. It was kind of scary when we heard that students were shot and killed at Kent State, and luckily, they only had tear gas at Miami.” 

Six days after the sit-in at Rowan Hall, Hudson was present for the campus-wide flush-in, another protest of the war. Students across Oxford coordinated to flush their toilets and turn on water faucets at the same time, draining the city’s water tower.

Hudson graduated with her bachelor’s from Miami in 1971. She said her experiences at college were the start of a life-long pursuit of activism. 

 “My mother said I was militant, but I don’t think I considered myself militant,” Hudson said. “I was just one that once I saw something that I thought was wrong or needed to be improved, I would listen to see if I agreed with that, and if I did, I work towards making a change.

After leaving university, Hudson moved to Akron and taught in public schools for 12 years. She returned to work in Hamilton in 1983 and took over her childhood home, where she remains today. 

Hudson continued working as a teacher and was president of the Hamilton Classroom Teacher Association for 15 years before retiring in 2011. She also joined the OEA, where she still serves, as well as the National Education Association where she does minority leadership training. 

“I really love that,” Hudson said, “because being a part of the National Education Association, we would go to Columbia, go to Washington, at least four or five times a year, and we would lobby our legislators on educational issues.” 

Hudson said she joined these associations because she wants to be heard. 

“I still feel in order to make a change, you need to be there to listen to it and be a part of whatever board or committee it is that makes the changes,” Hudson said. “And with OEA, they're always into the politics of it all and for education, bettering the surroundings for education. And if the Department of Education is dissolved, I think that education will go down, even though I'm not a teacher, and in the teaching area, I think once a teacher, you're always a teacher.” 

Over the years, Hudson has used her position in OEA and her involvement in the Democratic party to help people campaign for positions on the OEA board. She also worked on the Obama, Biden and Harris campaigns. 

Hudson said after Harris lost the campaign she went through a brief mourning period. Recently, though, she has started to engage with politics again. 

“I've started watching the news again, and I'm very disturbed about the people that Trump is putting in his cabinet,” Hudson said. “So that's something that I'm looking at, and I would work towards making sure that democracy stays in America, and I feel that the way things are going, we're losing our rights.”