Sylvia Elizabeth Mathis
On June 2, 1976, FBI Director Clarence Kelley presented Special Agent Sylvia E. Mathis with her badge and credentials, #2658. She was issued a leather attaché case, an unadorned purse, and a Smith & Wesson revolver with a snub-nosed barrel short enough to fit inside the purse.
Sylvia Elizabeth Mathis was the first Black woman to be recruited as a special agent for the FBI of the United States, and she was the first Black woman agent recruited in the state of North Carolina. At the time, only 41 agents out of a total of 8,500 in the country were women.
Sylvia E. Mathis, was born in 1949 in Durham, NC. She graduated from New York University (1969-72), where she received a Bachelor’s in Political Science this was after a year (1968-69) at Fisk University.
In May 1975, Mathis graduated from UNC School of Law and in July she passed the North Carolina Bar. Right after law school, she stayed in North Carolina and worked for the Department of Cultural Resources.
. Hers was a life framed by a commitment to service, a dedication to family, and marked by numerous accomplishments.
At age 26, Mathis became the first Black woman FBI agent, beginning her training at Quantico in February 1976.
Quoted in the February 7, 1976 issue of the Virginian Pilot newspaper, Mathis explained, “…I am interested in delving into the relation of defending of rights and enforcement of rights. Going into the FBI seemed like a natural step.”
Mathis was first assigned to the New York office of the FBI where she worked as a special agent and then as an advisor to the Office of Legal Counsel (1979-80). She then returned to Jacksonville, Florida to care for her parents in 1982. Accounts vary as to whether Mathis was a Florida or North Carolina native, but while the family may have had Durham connections, Jacksonville was where her parents had called home for many years, and Sylvia had attended Bishop Kenny High School in the city.
Just the next year, in 1983, Sylvia’s life was tragically cut short by a car accident at age 34. At the time of her death, she worked as the Director of the Jacksonville Downtown Ecumenical Service Council, providing support to homeless and unemployed residents of the city. Shortly before her death, she was awarded “Ms. Metro” by the Jacksonville weekly newspaper, The Metropolis. A volunteer who worked with Mathis was quoted in the October 19, 1983 issue of the paper that, “She is a very caring person and has given a lot of her time to those who need help.”
In a 1984 letter to the UNC publication University Report, Law School professor James B. Craven III remembered that she was a “rare and unforgettable” student, that he “was always proud of her and miss her now.”
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From The FBI's Bio Web site:
On February 17, 1976, a 26-year-old lawyer named Sylvia Elizabeth Mathis arrived at the sprawling Virginia campus that housed the FBI Academy. Like the other recruits, she was there to begin the rigorous four-month training program, and, hopefully, earn her stripes as a special agent of the FBI.
Mathis, however, had an added motivation and challenge. She was aiming to make history—to become the FBI’s first female African-American agent. It was an opportune moment. Nationwide, doors were finally opening for African-American women. Thanks to the groundwork laid by such 20th century pioneers as Mary McLeod Bethune, Dorothy Height, Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Daisy Bates, the civil rights and feminist movements were converging and gaining momentum. By the 1960s and 1970s, black women—like Shirley Chisholm, who won a seat in Congress in 1968—were rising to positions of leadership, in government and elsewhere.
Despite the signs of progress, Mathis had her work cut out for her.
At the time, integration of women into the Bureau’s agent ranks was moving slowly. Only about 40 of the approximately 8,500 FBI agents were women; the first two female agents of the modern era—Susan Roley Malone and Joanne Pierce Misko—had earned their badges and credentials less than four years earlier. Though welcomed by some colleagues, women and minorities often felt out of place at the Academy.
Then, as now, the training itself was also quite demanding. Candidates had to master a variety of academic subjects and excel at a series of real-world practical exercises. The overall physicality of the training was arduous and required less-athletic recruits—men and women alike—to put in extra effort. Even if they had never fired a weapon in their lives, trainees needed to quickly become proficient in marksmanship. In previous years many aspirants, including two female African-Americans before Mathis, had not been able to complete the training.
But Sylvia Mathis was determined. Born on July 7, 1949 and raised in North Carolina and Florida, she had demonstrated both smarts and resolve. She earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from New York University in 1972 and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law in 1975. Her law school dean, a former FBI agent, encouraged her to consider the Bureau. Given her interest in both the protection and enforcement of civil rights, she felt it was a good fit. She applied and was accepted in early February.
As the training progressed, Mathis showed adaptability and dedication. Her six-week report noted that although she had some “difficulty in the gym and on the range,” she was working hard. Academically, she was performing well. Overall, her instructors were confident in her graduation and ultimate success as an agent, and they were right.
On June 2, 1976, FBI Director Clarence Kelley presented Special Agent Sylvia Mathis with her badge and credentials, #2658. She was issued a leather attaché case, an unadorned purse, and a Smith & Wesson revolver with a snub-nosed barrel short enough to fit inside the purse.
Following graduation, Mathis was sent to the New York Field Office and assigned to its organized crime squad, where she helped investigate illegal gambling and extortion cases. She worked a variety of other matters, including handling short-term undercover duties and interviewing survivors of the 1978 massacre in Jonestown, Guyana.
In 1979, Mathis left the FBI and went to work as an attorney in New York for a few years before moving to Jacksonville, Florida, to be with her family. She was later named director of the city’s Downtown Ecumenical Services Council, which provides emergency assistance to those in need. Tragically, Mathis was killed in a car accident in October 1983.
Photo Source: The Carolina Times, February 21, 1976
Article source: https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/.../01/16/sylviamathisuncalumna/
Article Source: https://www.fbi.gov/.../our-history-our-service-sylvia...