The Life of Amoriya
Elizabeth Anne Rose Amoriya, 77, is a retired Athens resident who separates herself by being a white feminist who is involved with several African American groups that advocate for African American rights and education.
She legally changed her name in court to Amoriya when she was 26 because after going through several nicknames and getting a divorce, she was tired of all the changes and wanted a name of her own that wouldn’t change.
Amoriya was born in 1945 in East Cleveland and lived there until she was 33. At age 18 she moved to Oberlin, Ohio where she got her undergraduate degree from Oberlin College in Sociology. Then in 1979 she received her graduate degree from Cleveland State in School Psychology. She chose School Psychology because she said it involves “the testing and evaluating of children’s learning problems” and that was something that intrigued her.
During the mid 70s’, while volunteering for the National Organization of Welfare Rights and the Free Clinic Newspaper, she met Bob Smiddie. Bob was an Appalachian man from Tennessee, and after a few years of dating, Amoriya and Bob got married.
“My husband was an artist who made functional pottery, planted large gardens for canning, wrote plays and did political activism,” Amoriya said.
Once she graduated college, she and Bob moved to Meigs County in Ohio because they wanted to live somewhere more rural than Cleveland. Amoriya ended up finishing her internship from Cleveland State at Ohio University. They found a 40-acre farm in Meigs County that they loved due to the amount of history the house had. She lived in Meigs County until she was 63.
“That house had a lot of history to it which I really appreciate,” Amoriya said. “The reason I know it was wallpapered in 1863 is because I was uncovering the logs in 1983 and I discovered wallpaper that was newspaper under the wallpaper. The newspaper dates were during the Civil War.”
In 2011, Bob passed away after struggling with Bladder Cancer for years. Amoriya retired in 2010 so that she could be by her husband’s side during the last year of his life.
“I got to spend 40 years married to this interesting, artistic, smart, dedicated, political activist,” Amoriya said.
To continue living the rural lifestyle that Amoriya and Bob had created for themselves, Amoriya still actively plants vegetables and flowers in their garden. She decorates the garden with pottery that her husband crafted and places them around to honor him.
“It’s a wonderful backyard to lay in when there aren't motorcycles speeding by,” Amoriya said.
In 2012 she moved to Athens because she didn’t want to live in her farmhouse without her husband. The house she lives in now is a 1931 Craftsman house which she said was “very popular” at the time and she’s lived there for 10 years. According to Amoriya, the layout of the house is similar to a cottage because it only has one floor. She is very into thrifting her furniture and getting decorations for her house that are used.
“I loved the fact that this house was old,” Amoriya said. “It was actually built the same year my husband was born and that made me feel very comfortable. I absolutely love this house! I think this goes for everyone, but it’s the things inside my house that really tell my story.”
She is into thrifting her furniture and getting decorations for her house that are used. This theme of taking something that once had its own history and bringing it to the light to experience more history is something that Amoriya carries with her throughout her life, not just her home.
“I do value restoring things and repurposing objects and given that I’m 77 years old, everything in my house that isn’t utilitarian has a story behind it,” Amoriya said. “My house is filled with things that remind me of my husband and my family.”
Amoriya’s father was in the Civil War and lost his hearing due to it. To focus on something he enjoyed, he started making furniture, so anything that isn’t thrifted or from her husband is made from Amoriya’s father.
Amoriya grew up being religiously raised in the Baptist Church. For the past 33 years she’s considered herself a ‘Quaker’ meaning you’re a member of the Religious Society of the Friends of Jesus. This group of people don’t have any ministers or pastors because they believe each individual has their own job to do once they connect and communicate with God.
“Being a quaker has informed all of my decisions about where to work, how ro raise my child and how to interact with other people,” Amoriya said.
After a while, Amoriya stopped being a quaker because she felt they weren’t diverse and wanted to be surrounded by people who didn’t all look like her.
During Bob‘s lifetime, Amoriya didn’t know much about political activism, only that her husband was passionate about it. Once he passed away, Amoriya started getting more involved with churches in Athens, but after a while those churches weren’t filling her up like she wanted. In 2016, Amoriya decided to do something different since she felt uncomfortable by the lack of diversity that she saw at this church. She realized that she wanted to dedicate her life to “remediating what I consider the United States original sin of slavery.”
She started taking political and African American Studies courses at Ohio University to educate herself more on the matter and “uncover all the history that has been ignored and buried.” In her research and academics she discovered that “laws have been set in place to keep African Americans in a secondary position” and wanted to learn more about what she could do to help this issue.
“It’s part of my commitment to make sure that future generations know the contributions that African American people have made to American history,” Amoriya said. “I found great social friends through the projects I do, so I think the commitment to the future and doing this with people I care about has made this an easy, interesting and fulfilling job.”
Phoenix LaCombe, the Athena Cinema Associate Director, worked alongside Amoriya during the Black Alumni Reunion movie screening on September 17th. LaCombe briefly knew Amoriya before working alongside her at the Black Alumni Reunion event because Amoriya is a regular customer at the Athena Cinema.
“She’s a very sweet woman,” LaCombe said. “She always walks close to me and she’ll start rubbing my back or link arms with me and it makes me feel so warm and cozy with her.”
Around 35-40 hours a week Amoriya volunteers her time to multiple organizations and groups that all have the same goal of restoring African American history as well as advocating for African American equality.
Showing Up For Racial Justice is the first antiracism group Amoriya joined. This group is the Athens-based version of a nationwide organization. The organization consists of mainly white individuals who, according to Amoriya, “wanted to disrupt racism wherever they found it, support each other and try to recruit more white people to the cause.”
Amoriya is also one of the few founders of a small group called Athens Parents for Racial Equity (AP4RE). In this small group, she went to the school board with several parents and explained the severity of the racism that goes on in Athens Public Schools.
The Racial Equity Coalition is a group that Amoriya more recently got involved with. It’s “a collaborative space to advance racial equity and racial justice within the Athens community,” according to the Racial Equity Coalition website. “We do this through anti-racist social, economic, educational, and cultural initiatives.”
The most recent group that Amoriya joined was in 2017 and it’s called the Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society which is a “non-profit organization dedicated to restoring the Mount Zion Baptist Church into a vibrant community center,” according to their website. “The center will offer educational, cultural and creative programming to support the Black community and other marginalized peoples of Southeast Ohio.” Armoriya has been a secretary for the Mount Zion Baptist Church Society for the past 3 years.
“I want to continue to serve God through the missions God has given me,” Amoriya said. “The main one being to focus on antiracism and dedicate myself to whatever I can find myself to do, whether it’s in a church setting, community setting or serving on a board.”
