Born in 1933, Theodora Lacey grew to adulthood in Montgomery, Alabama, in a climate in which Black citizens were systematically denied access to the opportunities for education, employment, personal liberty and civic justice that were available to white citizens.

Lacey was twenty-one years old when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was called to minister at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Lacey’s father, Dr. Clarence Theodore Smiley, a high school principal, was president of the board.  A year later, in 1955, Laceys’ friend Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to comply with the ordinance dictating that Blacks ride in the back of municipal buses.  During the subsequent 381-day bus boycott led by King, during which assisted the organizers by typing news releases and announcements, Lacey met, courted and married a boycott strategist, Alabama State University Professor Archie Lacey.

Pursuing justice in Montgomery alongside King led Lacey to a life-long commitment to the nonviolent resistance of racism.  “There was something about not only what he said, but the manner in which he presented himself that made me understand and think really hard about nonviolence,” Lacey reflected on her experience with King.  “I saw him practice what he was saying, and it made me resolve that he was right.”

In 1961, Theodora and Archie Lacey, then a professor at Hunter College in New York City, relocated to Teaneck, New Jersey.  The Laceys found that, despite the town’s reputation for welcoming racial diversity, Teaneck realtors resisted showing them homes for sale in predominantly white neighborhoods.   The third Black family to purchase a home on their block, the Laceys settled in the northeastern section of Teaneck, where most Black homebuyers were steered at that time.  They found friendly neighbors but also some unexpected hostility.

Almost as soon as she arrived in Teaneck, Theodora Lacey’s commitment to community values involved her in work with the League of Women Voters.  Later, in cooperation with the PTA of the Bryant School, where her children were enrolled, she started an after-school and Saturday program that operated for several years.  At the same time, the Laceys founded and organized the North East Community Organization, initially as a group of neighbors who joined to preserve the quality of town services that had been attracting families to Teaneck.  NECO developed into a guiding force in Teaneck’s voluntary integration of its public schools.   The Laceys helped township leaders formulate an integration plan that, although heatedly opposed, was implemented in the mid-1960’s without incident.

While raising four children and teaching in the Teaneck Public Schools over the last three decades, Lacey has continued working to achieve justice and support diversity in civic affairs.   With her husband, she designed human relations workshops to facilitate cooperation and understanding among races.   She has provided leadership in Teaneck to the Black Education Alliance, the Parent Teacher Association, the town advisory board, the Teachers Association and the Dr. Mr. Luther King, Jr. Celebration Committee.   Lacey is a Trustee of Central Unitarian Church in Paramus.