    EXHIBIT
    WOMEN OF COLOR
PROFILES IN ACHIEVEMENT

EDIT THIS PER EXHIBIT ---In this exhibit you can explore the different phases of Solitude’s history. We begin during the period when this place was indigenous land, and go on to explore its history as a slave plantation in the nineteenth century.

BLACK WOMEN AS VPI STUDENTS

La Vern Hairston, Linda Adams, and Chiquita Hudson

La Verne Hairston, Linda Adams, and Chiquita Hudson, 1966

Chiquita Hudson, Marguerite Harper, and Linda Adams, 1966

The first Black women were admitted to VPI in 1966. Their names were (Dr.) Linda Adams, (Dr.) Linda L. Edmonds, “Freddie” Hairston (now Dr. LaVerne Higgins), Marguerite L. Harper, Jacquelyn “Jackie” Butler, and Chiquita Hudson.

The first six black women to attend VPI, 1966

In an oral history, Dr. Linda Edmonds Turner recounts an anecdote about her struggles as a Black woman, as well as support she received from Dr. Furch. In a chemistry lab taught by a graduate teaching assistant, acid accidentally fell over her legs. Women at the time were required to wear skirts, so the acid ate off her pantyhose and made direct contact with her legs. While a peer helped her pour water over her legs, the clearly biased GTA came over and told her to stop being clumsy, barely checking her for injuries. She left class and ran into Dr. Furch.

Dr. Turner explains that she felt as if Dr. Furch was the only one who cared for her, after everyone in that lab treated her “worse than a dog on the street.” She received a B in that class just because she missed that one lab. If her GTA and classmates had been more supportive, she may not have missed the class and received an A for the semester. She concludes this story with,

Linda Edmonds, 1970 Bugle

“The B has never bothered me as much as the humiliation of it all because it was like I was naked. I felt naked.”

This story shows the struggle of not only being Black, but being a women in a male dominated field in the 1960's. Her mandated clothing that fed into gender roles was putting her at a significant disadvantage from her peers.

Dr. Turner also gives us an insight into the battle between tolerance and hatred that existed within the VPI community during her time as a student. In an interview with the Collegiate Times, she stated,

“I think there were 25 or so Black men [out of] 8,000 men, so we were quite outnumbered… It was like being on stage 24 hours a day.”

As well as being a woman, being Black was the defining factor of her existence at VPI. Dr. Turner, along with other Black students, describe their white counterparts blatantly staring at them as if they were animals locked up in a zoo. Racial tensions were high, especially following the day that Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated. Turner stated that, 

“...there was a group of students that were pro-Martin Luther King, pro-Black, liberal students that put the flag at half-staff. Then another group, anti, would raise it back up to full-staff.”

According to the VT Magazine, students took turns guarding the flag at half-mast (at Burruss Hall) to prevent angry students from raising the flag back up again.

 The political divide at VPI in 1968 parallels conflict across the US at the time. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death caused protests and riots to erupt all over the nation. Naturally, it would affect the political climate at VPI as well.

Linda Edmonds, 1970 Bugle

 Dr. La Verne “Freddie” (Hairston) Higgins came from a very outgoing and politically active family. Her parents were active in state politics, the Democratic Party, the NAACP, and even participated in demonstrations that promoted civil rights in Roanoke. She enrolled at VPI as a math major in 1966 along with her five other Black peers. In her math classes, she was usually the only non-white, female student in her classes:

“I remember the first math class. I walked into the class, and I was the only female and the only person who wasn't white. There weren't even any Asian students in there. That was calculus class. I remember that.”

Though she came to VPI as a progressive Black woman, she still had barriers to overcome. In the VT Magazine, she discusses the struggle of her intersectional identity as a Black woman, “It was really difficult being not just Black but female. The institution was not prepared to deal with us.” She spoke out against “Dixie” being played and Confederate flags being waved around during football games,

“But you can't move forward unless you can't forget about the past, but you can't just keep holding on to it. You got to keep going forward. "Dixie" could be and should be just an old song but isn't because of the baggage that goes with it. The baggage that goes with it is because of what people attach to it -not just a song about a time that used to be but about how we want to keep those things, and that's what got in the way of the song. The whole controversy in South Carolina now has to do with the feeling that this is a symbol of oppression, and the oppression continues, and maybe we have to get rid of the symbols before we can start talking about getting rid of the baggage and start changes in people's behavior.”

Dr. Higgins knew that their presence as Black women would be uncomfortable for their white counterparts as well as the administration. But she did not let that push her into the shadows. Higgins used her voice to co-write a feature called “BackTalk” with a white student. They would use that column to document debated issues such as, “the Vietnam War, labor unions, and mixed-race dating,” exposing her white counterparts to different perspectives. She also wrote for “Alice” which was an underground newspaper that was spurred on by the Civil Rights Movement (Click HERE to learn more about Alice). Though she refused to be silenced, she decided to leave VPI with her husband in 1968 and move north to Minnesota for her mental well-being. Higgins claimed that she was “really tired of fighting that battle in the South,” furthering her education at other institutions.

 Linda Adams  was the first official Black female graduate of Virginia Tech. She transferred to VPI, unlike her fellow Black students, and confronted intolerance as soon as she set foot on campus. She was given a white roommate, whose parents complained that their daughter shouldn’t have to room with a Black student. Despite the abrupt racism she faced and stares she endured as a Black female student, she became involved in campus life. Adams was the chair of the West Eggleston Disciplinary Committee, and organized the House Councils in the Eggleston halls.  Though Eggleston is where she first experienced blatant intolerance, she rose up and became a leader, not being afraid to make her voice heard in the very place it was ignored. 
 

Linda Adams, 1968

Jackie Butler, 1969

 Jackie Blackwell grew up in strictly segregated Lancaster County, Virginia. She grew up on a small farm and had about 50 students in her graduating high school class. She had never considered VPI as a place to continue her education until she received a John D. Rockefeller Scholarship of $4,000 to attend school there. The valedictorian of her class, she was a bright young woman and was ready for change. She started as a biology major, but ended up switching to sociology. As a Black woman, Blackwell faced a similar problem as her peers: she was the only Black person in most of her classes. But by speaking up in her sociology classes, and not being afraid of integrating herself into conversations, she broke down many stereotypes. Blackwell stated that,  
 
“For instance, as you will notice, as soon as it gets warm, the students go outside to sunbathe, and the girls on our hall, my roommate especially, would be kidding with them all the time, and she would take her watch off, and she would say, "Look at my suntan." Then the white girls in the dorm would say, "Well I didn't know that black people could receive a suntan." Stuff like that. And that's basically it. Of course one of our biggest problems was with our hair. Because when white people's hair get wet, it just goes straight. Well when black people's hair gets wet, it just bushes up. That would amaze them a lot, how thick our hair could get when it was wet. “

While she continued her education at VPI, Blackwell became involved in extracurricular clubs, such as Angel Flight, which was a (more social) sister club to the Air Force ROTC program at VPI. Through this club, she was able to participate in social gatherings every Thursday in the elite upper-quad where civilians were not normally allowed. These gatherings were mixed-race, tolerant gatherings where they ate with their brother club. By participating in VPI’s integrated extracurricular activities, she helped break down social barriers on campus.

While the first Black women dealt with both racism and sexism on a day-to-day basis, they were not afraid to use their voices and speak out. They didn’t shy away from activities and clubs dominated by peers that silently excluded them. They put themselves into the center of campus life and fought for their rights as students, and as human beings, every day.

MORE OF THIS EXHIBIT

INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 FROM THE AUTHOR

ASIAN, INDIGENOUS, AND LATINX WOMEN ON CAMPUS

BLACK WOMEN AS FACULTY AND STAFF

EMBRACING BLACK BEAUTY

CONFRONTING RACISM AND MAKING COMMUNITY ON CAMPUS

OTHER EXHIBITS