Rachel B. Noel - Accomplishments

Accomplishments

In 1965, Noel became the first African American to serve on the Denver Public Schools Board of Education. With her successful campaign and election, she became the first African American woman elected to public office in Colorado.

The Noel Resolution was presented to the Board of Education on April 25, 1968, and called for the Denver area school district superintendent to develop a plan for integration, providing equal educational opportunity for all children. Public opposition was high, and Noel and her family received many threatening phone calls and hate mail. The resolution was passed in February, 1970.

Noel was a professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver, where she founded and chaired the African-American Studies Department from 1971-80. Noel was also a member of the Chancellor's Advisory Committee for the Health Sciences at the University of Colorado at Boulder and University of Colorado at Denver and Commissioner of the Denver Housing Authority

Noel served on the Advisory Board of the United States Civil Rights Commission.