Zelma

Zelma O'Neal (1903 – 1989) was an American actress, singer, and dancer in the 1920s and 1930s. She appeared on Broadway and in early sound films, including the Paramount Pictures films Paramount on Parade and Follow Thru (both 1930).

Zelma Watson George (1903 – 1994) was a well-known African-American philanthropist and opera singer. She was famous for being an alternate in the United Nations General Assembly and, as a headliner in Gian-Carlo Menotti's opera The Medium, the first African American to play a role that was typically played by a white actress.

Zelma Henderson (born Zelma Cleota Hurst; 1920 – 2008) was an American civil rights activist. She was the last surviving plaintiff in the 1954 landmark federal school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education. The case outlawed segregation nationwide in all of the United States' public schools. The ruling served as a harbinger of the American Civil Rights Movement and paved the way for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation in all public facilities.

In Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, the younger Thénardier daughter is called Zelma by Cosette, their ward. Zelma's formal name is Azelma.

Zelma Davis is a Liberian singer who rose to fame as one of the featured vocalists for C&C Music Factory. She appeared in the video for C&C's #1 Hot 100 hit "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" lip-synching to the recorded vocals of Martha Wash.