Yvonne Bond Miller (July 4, 1934 – July 3, 2012) was a Virginia educator and American politician who became the first African-American woman to serve in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly. A Democrat, in 1983 Miller became the first African-American woman elected to the state house, where she served for four years before winning election to the state Senate, where she consistently won re-election until her death in office. Miller taught in the Norfolk Public schools, and later taught early and childhood education at one of her alma maters, which had become Norfolk State University during her lifetime. Early life and education Born on Independence Day, 1934 in Edenton, North Carolina, Yvonne Bond was the eldest of what became thirteen children born to John T. and Pency C. Bond. Her family moved to Norfolk, where she attended local public schools, which were then segregated by state law. After graduation, Bond attended the all-black Norfolk Division of Virginia State College, a historically black college (now Norfolk State University), for two years. In 1956, she earned a B.S. degree from Virginia State College in Petersburg (also a historically black college and which became Virginia State University). While in college, Bond became a lifetime member of Zeta Phi Beta. In 1962 Miller earned a M.A. degree from the Teachers College of Columbia University and in 1973 she earned a Ph.D in education from the University of Pittsburgh. Educator After earning her undergraduate degree (and while pursuing her graduate degrees), Bond taught for twelve years in the Norfolk Public Schools, at first at Young's Park elementary school. They had been segregated by state law since the 19th century and through her childhood. The U.S. Supreme Court had just issued its decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which required desegregation of public schools, but in Virginia the dominant Byrd Organization reacted with Massive Resistance. Although the Norfolk public schools (and Arlington public schools in northern Virginia) preferred to respond to lawsuits by the NAACP by desegregating, successive governors and the white-dominated Virginia general assembly enacted laws which permitted the governor to close schools in any district that voluntarily desegregated. Only after both a three-judge federal panel and the Virginia Supreme Court, both on the Lee-Jackson Day state holiday issued decisions declaring those laws unconstitutional did Virginia governor J. Lindsay Almond allow the Norfolk and Arlington public schools to desegregate, in both cases