Rener Reed, former president of Lakeview NAACP and education advocate, dies at 86

Rener Reed grew up in Mississippi during the Jim Crow era, where segregation ruled the day and opportunities for Blacks were limited. She personally knew what it was like to pick cotton and do domestic work, her family said.

But she also grew up in a household that stressed the importance of education, a focus that would become the thrust of her community activism over the decades. 

Reed was known for bringing together a diverse group of people to advocate for fairness in her community work and the many years she headed the Lakeview NAACP.

"She actually was a leader," Michele Cadogan, a former officer in the Lakeview branch of the NAACP when Reed was president in the 1980s and '90s. "Ms. Reed was influential in finding out what was going on. She embraced her neighbors and she was the voice that was willing to go to Malverne [School District] and say 'This is inappropriate and our children need this, this and this.' Because of her maturity and wisdom, she had insights on what should be done."

"She was a phenomenal woman. She loved Lakeview and loved the NAACP," said Doris Hicks Newkirk, current president of NAACP Lakeview.

Reed also gained the attention of a New York governor and a U.S. president. In 1989, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo appointed Reed to lead a 13-member board of directors of the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute for Non-Violence in Albany to address racial violence. And in 1994 President Bill Clinton appointed her to the Americans for Change Presidential Task Force to advise the administration on streamlining and improving government agencies. She was involved in Democratic Party politics, serving in the 1990s as president of the Lakeview Democratic Club; and was a delegate at the National Democratic Convention three times and attended three presidential inaugurations, her family said.

Rener Hinton Reed died Sunday at Meadowbrook Care Center in Freeport after an extended illness, her family said. She was 86.

Talking about her mother's legacy, Dr. Michele Reed, of Lakeview, said: "I think she was probably most proud of all her children, her grandchildren, her family, because she valued education." Michele Reed, a physician specializing in family medicine, said all of the four siblings graduated from college "and we all have advanced degrees." She said her mother was valedictorian of her class at Richton High School in Richton, Mississippi in 1958; and attended Tuskegee Institute for a time.

Another daughter, Lillie Poulson of Rockville Centre, said her mother's upbringing propelled her focus on education, and the belief that a good education could empower people. Reed was for many years active in the PTA and in a local group called Better Education Organization.

"My mother grew up in a time in which that is what Black people did: They picked cotton. They pulled greens. She also worked in Caucasian people's homes doing house cleaning work," Poulson said. "Even though she did these things," Poulson said the woman who helped raise her mother, a great aunt called Mama Lillie, "stressed the importance of education, even though she herself had a third or fourth grade education."

So when an elementary school in Lakeview, a largely Black community, was closed in the 1970s, and young children had to walk a couple of miles to another school — some parents carpooled or hired private transportation for their children, Michele Reed said — crossing a busy intersection and railroad tracks because the Malverne School District didn't provide busing, Reed went into action. She and others petitioned the New York Board of Education for busing. 

Rener Reed's husband, Claude D. Reed Jr., recalled that fight. "They closed the elementary school on Woodfield Road." But he said the school board "wouldn't give busing to the Lakeview kids. They always voted it down. They petitioned the Board of Education for New York for busing. But it took a long time."

Michele Reed said it took a few years before a younger brother would benefit from busing. "Once I got married and had children, my children were able to benefit from riding the school bus because of their grandmother. The Black and white community had come together ... for it to happen." 

Carol O'Beirne, formerly of Malverne now living in upstate Margaretville, said she worked with Reed on the busing issue.

O'Beirne said of Reed: "She had goals and she definitely had connections to Black leadership, the NAACP. She just brought me along. We became soul mates." Reed was "sophisticated" in her methods, "very smart, quiet. She made things work. But it took years."

Tracey A. Edwards, Long Island regional director of the NAACP, said, "Rener Reed wore many hats for so many of us: Civil rights champion, community leader and mentor to hundreds of women. She was not only an inspiration, but also a living example of how to lead with courage, compassion and integrity. She showed us the true meaning of walking the walk and her legacy will continue to guide and empower generations to come."

In addition to her husband and daughters, Reed's survivors include sons Charles Reed of Easton, Pennsylvania, and Michael Reed of Freeport; seven grandchildren and several nieces and nephews.

A memorial service for Reed will be 9:30 a.m. Oct. 4 at The Congregational Church in South Hempstead.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie