Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954 : An Intellectual History

by Evans, Stephanie Y.

• ISBN13: 9780813032689
• ISBN10: 0813032687
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-18
• Publisher: UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Summary

Evans chronicles the stories of African American women who struggled for and won access to formal education, beginning in 1850, when Lucy Stanton, a student at Oberlin College, earned the first college diploma conferred on an African American woman. In the century between the Civil War and the civil rights movement, a critical increase in black women's educational attainment mirrored unprecedented national growth in American education. Evans reveals how black women demanded space as students and asserted their voices as educators--despite such barriers as violence, discrimination, and oppressive campus policies--contributing in significant ways to higher education in the United States. She argues that their experiences, ideas, and practices can inspire contemporary educators to create an intellectual democracy in which all people have a voice. Among those Evans profiles are Anna Julia Cooper, who was born enslaved yet ultimately earned a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne, and Mary McLeod Bethune founder of Bethune-Cookman College. Both women's philosophies raised questions of how human and civil rights are intertwined with educational access, scholarly research pedagogy, and community service. This first complete educational and intellectual history of black women carefully traces quantitative research, explores black women's collegiate memories, and identifies significant geographic patterns in America's institutional development. Evans reveals historic perspectives, patterns, and philosophies in academia that will be an important reference for scholars of gender, race, and education.

Author Biography

Stephanie Y. Evans is assistant professor in the African American Studies Program and Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research at the University of Florida

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
List of Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction: "This Right to Grow": Higher Education as Both a Human and Civil Right	p. 1
Educational Attainment
"A Plea for the Oppressed": Educational Strivings, Pre-1865	p. 21
"The Crown of Culture": Educational Attainment, 1865-1910	p. 36
"Beating Onward, Ever Onward": A Critical Mass, 1910-1954	p. 57
"Reminiscences of School Life": Six College Memoirs	p. 77
"I Make Myself Heard": Comparative Collegiate Experiences	p. 104
"The Third Step": Doctoral Degrees, 1921-1954	p. 120
Intellectual Legacy
Research: "The Yard Stick of Great Thinkers"	p. 141
Teaching: "That Which Relieves Their Hunger"	p. 160
Service: "A Beneficent Force"	p. 180
Living Legacies-Black Women in Higher Education, Post-1954	p. 194
Notes	p. 217
Bibliography	p. 241
Index	p. 259
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.