- Edgar Cunningham
Edgar V. Cunningham, Sr. (
1910-12-11 –1980-02-27 ) was an early youth member of theBoy Scouts of America who is believed to be the firstAfrican American Eagle Scout. Cunningham was born inNew Orleans, Louisiana and was a member of Troop 12 inWaterloo, Iowa in what was thenWapsipinicon Area Council .cite web | url =http://www.westtexasscoutinghistory.net/award_eaglepage.html | title =Eagle Scouts | work =West Texas Scouting History | accessdate =29 Sep | accessyear =2006 ] Troop 12 was a "colored troop" formed in 1925 during the period when Scout units were segregated and, with Troop 9, was one of the two colored troops in Waterloo formed by James Lincoln Page. Cunningham was the first Scout in either of the Waterloo colored troops to earn Eagle Scout onJune 8 ,1926 . He received a hand-written letter from PresidentCalvin Coolidge acknowledging him as the first black Eagle Scout and Scoutmaster Page received a presidential citation. [cite news |authorlink= |author=Pat Kinney |coauthors= |title=Scout leader's valor remembered |url=http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2007/03/19/news/metro/bcb553276e0e76e1862572a3004d06a4.txt | publisher=WCFcourier.com |date=2007-03-19 | accessdate=2007-04-12 | language= ]Cunningham married Susie Ann Rockett on
1931-09-14 inGalena, Illinois . They had five children, eighteen grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren.After Cunningham died in 1980, the
Winnebago Council (the successor to the Wapsipinicon Area Council) made inquiries to the National Council of the BSA to determine if he was indeed the first black Eagle Scout. Since Cunningham had earned Eagle Scout fourteen years after the first Eagle Scout was awarded and National did not track ethnicity, there has been no way to validate the claim.ee also
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Scouting in Iowa
*List of Eagle Scouts (Boy Scouts of America) References
Persondata
NAME=Cunningham, Edgar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=First known African American Eagle Scout
DATE OF BIRTH=1910-12-11
PLACE OF BIRTH=New Orleans, Louisiana
DATE OF DEATH=1980-02-27
PLACE OF DEATH=Waterloo, Iowa
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