Ramona Edelin, activist and education advocate, dies at 78

**FILE** Ramona Edelin (Courtesy photo) & & Once upon a time, Black Americans were simply known as colored people, or Negroes. That is until Ramona Edelin came along. The activist, renowned for her pivotal roles in advancing civil rights, education reform, and community empowerment, died at her D.C. residence last month at the age of 78. Her death, confirmed this week by Barnaby Towns, a communications strategist who collaborated with Edelin, was attributed to cancer. Born on Sept. 4, 1945, in Los Angeles, Edelin’s early years were marked by a commitment to education and social justice. According to her HistoryMakers biography, after graduating from Fisk University with a bachelor’s degree in 1967, she pursued further studies at the University of East Anglia in England. She earned her master’s degree before completing her doctorate at Boston University in 1981. Edelin’s contributions to academia and activism were manifold. She was pivotal in popularizing the term “African American” alongside the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. in the late 1980s.& & Jackson had announced the preference for “African American,” speaking for summit organizers that included Edelin. “Just as we were called colored, but were not that, and then Negro, but not that, to be...