Helene ‘Nomsa’ Brath, freedom fighter and companion to Elombe Brath, passes at 81
Helene “Nomsa” Brath was inseparably linked to her husband Elombe, and together, they were a dauntless, defiant duo against racism, colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. If she chose to remain out of the limelight and the forefront, devoting time and energy to raising her children, she was nonetheless a formidable force in the fight for justice and liberation.
She was born Helene White on March 15, 1942, in Harlem to mother Hurline White and father James Foster White. Last year, during her 80th birthday, she chuckled that she did not expect to be here at 80.
After surviving several strokes and multiple aneurysms, she finally acknowledged that she was a fighter for civil and human rights. An activist since she was a teenager, her first act of defiance was telling her mother that she was not going to straighten her hair anymore. Her mother figured that she would get a man to talk “some sense” into her and called her brother Harry, a war veteran—and teenage Helene told him the same thing.
She was very active in her community until chronic health challenges slowed her down, but she was in a good space with her life. Nomsa, as she was affectionately known to many, still found time to be featured in two documentary films: “You Say You Want a Revolution: Rebellious Women in the Fashion and Entertainment Industry” (2019) and “AJASS: Pioneers of the Black is Beautiful Movement” (2022), as well as being portrayed by actress Adepero Oduye in Ava Duvernay’s miniseries on Netflix, “When They See Us.”
Nomsa was a mother, wife, community organizer, education activist, education reformer, educator, public speaker, and artist. She was married to and often worked with her husband Elombe for more than 50 years. In the 1960s, she was one of the original Grandassa models and president of the organization. They were both pioneers in the Black arts and Black is Beautiful movements in the 1960s.
Her advocacy and activism role in the case of the Exonerated 5 is still understated, but acclaim was not relevant for her; she only wanted to see them exonerated and compensated.
Nomsa was an advocate for the removal of asbestos from New York City public schools. In 1985, the Journal of Law and Education highlighted her asbestos removal advocacy work. Her work and efforts, along with others, led to shutting down unsafe primary and grade schools in the 1970s.
It was known that 20% of the schools in New York City had asbestos, and the risk of mesothelioma in young children had not been properly addressed. Nomsa researched and learned the dangers of asbestos. Her research led her to work with the superintendent and stress the importance of closing down the schools.
Along with pushing to close the asbestos-filled school buildings, Nomsa urged the superintendent to bus children to different schools throughout New York that were free of asbestos problems. She starred in both congressional and senate hearings to address the issue.
The financial toll the NYC school system and New York had to endure was a litmus test for what could happen if parental advocacy was realized in other schools. Since then, federal guidelines have been enhanced, clarified, and expanded based on her work.
Nomsa worked alongside the late Senator Claiborne Pell, who called her the original whistleblower, and the late Jacob Javits, who later made her the national spokesperson for Partners for Reform in Science and Math (PRISM). She was recognized by the United Federation of Teachers for saving many lives by forcing the Board of Education to accept and mitigate research about mesothelioma, which led to closing schools and making renovations in others.
Nomsa was about saving lives, or at least extending them. She extended her own life at least a decade on sheer will, but on Monday, October 30, she took her last breath.
Nomsa will be remembered and ideally never forgotten. Memorial services are pending; at this time, the family requests some privacy.
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