The Key to the Door

Experiences of Early African American Students at the University of Virginia

Maurice Apprey, Shelli M. Poe, Maurice Apprey, Shelli M. Poe

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9780813939872
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

The Key to the Door frames and highlights the stories of some of the first black students at the University of Virginia. This inspiring account of resilience and transformation offers a diversity of experiences and perspectives through first-person narratives of black students during the University of Virginia's era of incremental desegregation. The authors relate what life was like before enrolling, during their time at the University, and after graduation. In addition to these personal accounts, the volume includes a historical overview of African Americans at the University—from its earliest slaves and free black employees, through its first black applicant, student admission, graduate, and faculty appointments, on to its progress and challenges in the twenty-first century. Including essays from graduates of the schools of law, medicine, engineering, and education, The Key to the Door a candid and long-overdue account of African American experiences at the University' of Virginia.

INDEX

ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) titles, 26

AccessUVa, 47n48

Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Physics, School of, 20

affirmative action, 22, 31, 36

African Americans at U.Va.

—administrators: first affirmative action and equal opportunity officer (Lincoln Lewis), 22; first black administrators, 21–24; first black dean of academic department (Bonnie Guiton Hill), 22; organizations, 25; women among, 163

—alumni: difficulty of returning, 4, 108, 149, 153–54, gallery; Distinguished Alumna Award, 27; first Black Alumni Weekend (1987), 19, 108, 133; number of, 38; Pinn returning as speaker and taking active role, 152–53, 155; reunion of black students from 1950s and 1960s (2009), gallery; Temple serving on alumni committees, 133

—faculty: Afro-American Faculty-Staff Forum (1980s), 23, 25; first black faculty, 21–24; first black female faculty member (Joan C. Franks), 22; first black tenured faculty couple (Nathan & Joan Franks), 22; number of, 22–23, 38, 109; organizations, 25; recruitment and retention of, 166

—firsts: admissions of black students (1950s), 19, 84; African American and woman as Medical Center CEO (Pamela Sutton-Wallace), 161; black administrators and faculty, 21–24; black athletic director (Craig K. Littlepage), 27; black College of Arts and Sciences graduate (Amos Leroy Willis), 20, 121; black dean of academic department (Bonnie Guiton Hill), 22; black dean of School of Medicine (David S. Wilkes), 161; black female faculty member (Joan C. Franks), 22; black female graduate (Louise Stokes Hunter), 19; black female law school graduate (Elaine R. Jones), 18; black female medical school graduate (Barbara S. Favazza), 114–17, gallery; black graduate (Walter Nathaniel Ridley), 19, 160, gallery; black Lawn resident (Leroy Willis), 102–3, 121, 161; black law school admission (Gregory Hayes Swanson), 18, 160; black law school graduate (John F. Merchant), 18, 49–82, 161; black law school professor (Larry Wilson), 22; black medical school graduate (Edward Wood), 19, 161; black rector (George K. Martin), 168, gallery; black scholar to lecture (Luther Porter Jackson), 18, 160; black student-athletes, 26–27; black undergraduate to receive B.S. (Robert A. Bland), 20, 101, 161; desegregated fraternity (Pi Lambda Phi), 130–31, 132

—students: black facu...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Foreword
• Introduction: Higher Education for the Public Good
• Perseverance and Resilience: African Americans at the University of Virginia
• The Only One in the Room: U.Va. Law School, 1955–1958
• Becoming a Doctor in a Segregated World
• Life on Mr. Jefferson’s Plantation
• Looking Back
• An Interview with Teresa Walker Price and Evelyn Yancey Jones
• A Son of the South: An African American Public Servant
• U.Va.—An Essential Experience
• An Interview with Vivian W. Pinn
• Opening the Door: Reflection and a Call to Action for an Inclusive Academic Community
• Addendum: Strategies for Creating a Sense of Place and High Achievement
• Notes on Contributors
• Index