Harriet Elizabeth Byrd
Harriet Elizabeth Byrd (April 20, 1926 – January 27, 2015) was an American politician and educator from Wyoming who was the first African-American elected to the Wyoming Legislature. Early life and education Byrd was born Harriet Elizabeth Rhone in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was the daughter of Robert C. "Buck" Rhone, a first class mechanic for Union Pacific Railroad, and Sudie Smith Rhone, a homemaker. Her paternal grandfather Charles J. Rhone first settled in Wyoming in 1876, where he worked as a cowboy and railroader in Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming. She graduated from Cheyenne High School in 1944. Byrd graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from West Virginia State College, a historically black college in Institute, West Virginia in 1949. In 1976, she earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Wyoming. Career After graduating from college in 1949, Byrd returned to Wyoming in order to apply for a teaching job with the Laramie County School District, but was denied employment because of her race. She was subsequently hired as a civilian instructor in the Department of Administrative Services at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. In 1959, the Laramie County School District reversed its