Early Life and Education

Ira de Augustine Reid was born on July 2, 1901 in Clifton Forge, VA, to Daniel Augustine Reid and Willie Robertha James. Moving to Pennsylvania at a young age, he went to integrated public schools in Harrisburg and Germantown. When he was 16 his dad accepted a pastorate position in Savannah, Georgia. Since there were no public high schools for African Americans in Georgia at the time, he enrolled in Morehouse Academy and continued to Morehouse College at the age of 16. That same year (1917), in light of World War I, Reid attempted to join the Colored Officers Training Camp in Iowa but was ultimately conscripted for service in Georgia. After completing his service he went back to Morehouse College and received his B.A. in 1922.

After graduating from Morehouse College, Reid was a teacher in Texas and West Virginia for two years. In 1924, Reid was nominated as a National Urban League Fellow in Pittsburgh, and the following year Reid earned a Master's Degree in social economics from the University of Pittsburgh, with the title of his thesis being "The Negro in the Major Industries and Building Trades of Pittsburgh." That same year he also married his first wife, Gladys Russell Scott.