By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Learning from our tumultuous past under segregation is the focus of a March 30 symposium at UNCG.
A panel discussion will feature three desegregation pioneers, highlighting their experiences in North and South Carolina schools and how their stories might effect positive cultural change. The discussion, organized by UNCG’s Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations, begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Wachovia Lecture Hall, Room 201, in the science building at the intersection of Carr and McIver streets.
The panelists include JoAnne Smart Drane, the first African-American female to graduate from UNCG, then Woman’s College; Dr. Josephine Boyd Bradley, the first African-American graduate of Greensboro’s Grimsley High School, then Greensboro High School; and Dr. Millicent Ellison Brown, the first African-American graduate of Charleston’s Rivers High School. The women will talk about how they managed to endure, given the harassment they faced; how desegregation impacted their lives; and what lessons can be learned to improve the current social and cultural climate.
“Our sense was that the stories of these women were so powerful and obviously racial relationships are still such an issue in our society and our schools that we thought the experiences of these women might help foster understanding,” said Dr. Rick Reitzug, educational leadership and cultural foundations department chairman.
Dr. Reitzug said the symposium grew out of a dissertation project by his colleague, Dr. Karen Meadows, a doctoral student who embarked on a narrative research study of African-American women who were the first African-Americans to graduate from their institutions. Dr. Meadows chronicled the experiences of Dr. Bradley and Dr. Brown in her dissertation, which was completed earlier this year, and took the lead in organizing the symposium.
Grimsley High School is co-sponsoring Dr. Bradley’s visit and plans to honor her with additional activities at the high school.
