Joyce Grant (Robinson) was born on Aug. 5, 1940, at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, the only child to Naomi (Virgil) and John Henry Robinson. She died on Saturday, Jan 18, 2025.
She was raised on the South Side of Chicago in a neighborhood filled with thriving African American businesses. Her family belonged to St. Anselm’s parish and she attended all Catholic schools from kindergarten through college. Her grammar school was St. Anselm’s Catholic School of which she graduated in 1952.
During her life, Joyce was a quiet civil rights pioneer. For high school, she attended Loretto Academy of the Immaculate Conception in Woodlawn-Chicago. By the mid-1950s, Loretto began accepting African American women students. The Sisters of Loretto were very active in civil rights marches in Chicago and in the South, fighting against discrimination and advocating for equality for all.
While at Loretto, Joyce studied history, Latin, French and her biggest love, music. She often performed in recitals and competitions and frequently sewed her own recital dresses. As an adolescent, she won a Singer Sewing competition. In her senior year, she played in a competition performing Beethoven’s “Piano Concerto in C.” Her accompanist was a white male, which was a rare and bold interracial statement at the time. Her performance was so noteworthy that she was asked to play it again at the spring recital. Joyce graduated from Loretto in 1958.
Joyce pledged Delta Sigma Theta sorority Lambda chapter in Chicago on Dec. 5, 1959.
She attended Mundelein College in Chicago and graduated in 1962. Mundelein served as the last private Catholic women’s college in Illinois until it was absorbed with neighboring Loyola University Chicago in 1991.
Soon after graduating, Joyce and several friends went to Columbia University in New York City for summer school in which she studied history. While in New York, she met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. following a service he preached at a Harlem Church. Afterward, King was attacked by protesters who pelted him and his entourage with eggs.
Soon after returning to Chicago, she met Nathaniel B. Grant Jr. at a sorority function. They would later marry and moved to Homewood. While raising their young family, they both would go back to school and get their master’s degrees from Governors State University with her focus on education.
Joyce became an educator and retired as a beloved and prominent elementary school teacher at Heather Hill Elementary School in Flossmoor. She was active in her church, Flossmoor Community Church, volunteering and enjoyed hobbies like line dancing.
Joyce is survived by her three children Laurens, Nathan and Nelson; six grandchildren and many cousins. Her husband, Nathaniel B. Grant Jr preceded her in death on Jan. 6, 2025.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in the name of Joyce Grant and sent to the Women and Leadership Archives (WLA) at Loyola University in Chicago. The WLA preserves the legacy and records of Mundelein College and collects and preserves oral histories, photographs, college records and makes available permanently valuable records of women and women’s organizations which document women’s lives, roles and contributions.