La Citadelle: Layle Lane and Social Activism in Twentieth-Century America

Layle Lane was an educator, a social activist, and a political leader. She was a key organizer of the first march on Washington, D.C., which led to the creation of the Fair Employment Practices Act and Commission after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s executive order in 1941. Lane also played a major role in the March on Washington Movement, headed by A. Philip Randolph. In 1948, Lane encouraged President Harry Truman to desegregate the American military through her involvement in the movement. After taking on Washington, D.C., Lane ran for political office in New York City where she played a major role in the city’s social changes. During the 1950s, she ran a camp for inner city boys in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to expose them to a way of life different from the city streets. It is on this property that a street presently runs through called Layle Lane—the first street named after an African American woman in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. La Citadelle chronicles the life of a real American hero who paved the way for future social activists.