Sylvia Yvonne Cyrus, Executive Director of The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), was born on December 16, 1955, in Plainfield, New Jersey, to John Marvin Cyrus, Sr., an orphan who completed an eighth-grade education in Cranford, New Jersey, and Ruby Johnson Cyrus, a public-school teacher and graduate of Virginia Union University in Richmond. In 1968, Sylvia was one of the first students to be integrated at McManus Jr. High School in Linden, New Jersey.
She faced challenges, particularly because she came from a separate but far from equal societal system, but she rose to the challenges she faced in her new environment with a determination to excel not only for herself but also for family and community, thus having an accurate understanding of the ills of oppression.
Cyrus enrolled in Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia after graduating from Linden High School in Linden Union County in 1973. In 1977, she graduated with honors with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Ecology, Retail Marketing.
Cyrus worked as a corporate office Assistant Buyer at JC Penney in New York City from 1977 to 1988 and as General Manager for Comprehensive Building Supplies, a family-owned firm, from 1989 to 2000.
Cyrus, currently a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., served as president of the Beta Alpha Omega Chapter in Newark, New Jersey, in 2002, and on the sorority’s national and regional committees. She oversaw youth programs and raised scholarship funds for high school students, among other things, in order to serve humanity as a whole.
Cyrus worked as the Office Manager of the Business Office and Assistant to the Business Administrator at Hillside New Jersey Public Schools from 2002 to 2003, and then as the Assistant Business Administrator at Westfield New Jersey Public Schools until 2003.
Cyrus became the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 12th Executive Director in 2003, and has held that position longer than any previous executive director save Association founder Carter G. Woodson. Her mission as Executive Director is to promote research, preserve, interpret, and disseminate information about black life, history, and culture.
She has grown ASALH’s community ties with both established and growing groups, as well as major national enterprises. These strategic alliances, including the National Park Service, have raised awareness of the importance of conserving black history.
Cyrus was named one of Washington’s 50 Influencers by the Washington Informer Charities, Inc. in 2015. Under Cyrus’ leadership, the ASALH received the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Distinguished Organization Avoice Heritage Award in 2018 as well as the Historic Achievement Award from The Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
In 2019, Cyrus also won the Centennial Award from the National Parks Conservation Association, the foremost conservation organization that advocates for the National Park Service.
Cyrus is currently a member of the NAACP and serves on the Advisory Board for the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. She is a life member of the Association of Black Women Historians and a charter member of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. In addition, Sylvia Yvonne Cyrus is the historian for the Robinson/ Powell/ Johnson Family, whose roots can be traced back to the mid-1800s in Middlesex County, Virginia.