This is fascinating (hi! lurking on another's f-list). I can't help wondering how the "Negro girl" felt, seeing someone stare at her in horror, then get up and "march out of the room."
Yes, exactly. I expect the southern students had a reputation for bad behavior, but what a shitty experience. Ah, here's a new girl from the south. Let's see if she acts like an asshole. Oh, yep, here we go.
I found a publicity release from Wellesley comparing their enrollments from 2003-4 (6% African-American students) and 1953-4 (<1% African American students). That less than 1% translates to twelve students.
And that's two decades after Durr was there.
In Jane Bolin's obituary (the first female African-American judge in the U.S.) it notes she graduated from Wellesley, class of 1928. With only one other African-American student.
So barring enrollment fluctuations, it's probably a safe bet that she was one of only two to seven or so African-American students out of a college of maybe around 1500.
I can't find anything else. Maybe I will go bug the dashing grad student librarians at the Internet Public Library.
(Sorry, responded to myself instead of you, yesterday, and didn't realize until now)
Ah, wait, I'm wrong, Durr attended from 1921 to 1923, before Jane Bolin graduated. It would be sweet if the woman she refused to sit with was Jane Bolin, eventually to become the first African-American judge in the U.S., but the dates are off by three years (Durr was in the class of 1925, but never graduated because her parents ran out of money). History is not so just, I guess.
Still, it means it's likely that the student Durr refused to sit was probably one of maybe two or three African-American students at the college.
You are mighty with your research. It would be wonderful if the African-American woman had a diary as well.
It's very interesting that Durr seems to have no personal opinion of the African-American student save through the lens of her father; it defines her utterly - an echo of the fact that one could only go to certain events/participate in social life if a male determined one could go.
Wellesley has a pretty hard-ass background, too; it began as a school for evangelical teachers, if I recall correctly, and the first group of faculty were all born again. Plus northern women's colleges thought of themselves as very different from the south, and they might have enforced integration as a power move.
Apparently the idea for it began as a seminary, but when it actually opened the founder had decided that rather than a religious focus he wanted it to be a Harvard for women.
And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see it as a power move, rather than a principled one. It's disheartening to consider how much prejudice and discrimination is still out there because people have managed to dehumanize the targets of it to the extent that their preferences and feelings are not considered; but it's also disheartening to think about how many steps toward equality have probably been taken by people who just want to differentiate themselves from a group of people they don't like, and slamming that group on its prejudices is an easy way to do that.
And wow... I try really hard to fully engage in people's life scenarios to better understand how they became assholics or racist or whatever, but she didn't even *consider* the moral implications of this? Just wow...
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Yes, exactly. I expect the southern students had a reputation for bad behavior, but what a shitty experience. Ah, here's a new girl from the south. Let's see if she acts like an asshole. Oh, yep, here we go.
I found a publicity release from Wellesley comparing their enrollments from 2003-4 (6% African-American students) and 1953-4 (<1% African American students). That less than 1% translates to twelve students.
And that's two decades after Durr was there.
In Jane Bolin's obituary (the first female African-American judge in the U.S.) it notes she graduated from Wellesley, class of 1928. With only one other African-American student.
So barring enrollment fluctuations, it's probably a safe bet that she was one of only two to seven or so African-American students out of a college of maybe around 1500.
I can't find anything else. Maybe I will go bug the dashing grad student librarians at the Internet Public Library.
Reply
Ah, wait, I'm wrong, Durr attended from 1921 to 1923, before Jane Bolin graduated. It would be sweet if the woman she refused to sit with was Jane Bolin, eventually to become the first African-American judge in the U.S., but the dates are off by three years (Durr was in the class of 1925, but never graduated because her parents ran out of money). History is not so just, I guess.
Still, it means it's likely that the student Durr refused to sit was probably one of maybe two or three African-American students at the college.
Reply
It's very interesting that Durr seems to have no personal opinion of the African-American student save through the lens of her father; it defines her utterly - an echo of the fact that one could only go to certain events/participate in social life if a male determined one could go.
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And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see it as a power move, rather than a principled one. It's disheartening to consider how much prejudice and discrimination is still out there because people have managed to dehumanize the targets of it to the extent that their preferences and feelings are not considered; but it's also disheartening to think about how many steps toward equality have probably been taken by people who just want to differentiate themselves from a group of people they don't like, and slamming that group on its prejudices is an easy way to do that.
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And wow... I try really hard to fully engage in people's life scenarios to better understand how they became assholics or racist or whatever, but she didn't even *consider* the moral implications of this? Just wow...
Still hoping she grew and changed though...
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