By Angela White
Trinity Times Correspondent
Trinity Washington University’s 125-year history of educating women makes it a natural venue to honor March as Women’s History Month and three graduates of the school did just that with a panel discussion called “A Conversation with Black Alumnae.”
These graduates from 1969 and 1970 talked about how they had to overcome professional and personal hurdles in their lives as women in society, but they also discussed the racism they encountered as women of color, even at their all-girls alma mater.
All three panelists made history in their own way. Jeanette Jackson Clark – a 1970 graduate of Trinity – was appointed a judge in the District of Columbia Superior Court in 2002 by President George W. Bush; Ara Johnson-Bland and Bettie Grant Crawls – both graduates from the class of 1969 – received bachelor’s degrees in psychology. Johnson-Bland also completed her MBA at Trinity.
“We had no choice but to persevere,” Clark told the audience and added her fierce determination drove her to face the roadblocks her race and gender presented and steamrolled ahead.
Trinity’s Black Student Alliance and the Trinity History Project hosted “A Conversation with Black Alumnae” March 28, 2023, in celebration of Women’s History Month.
It was an opportunity for the Trinity community to applaud the university’s commitment to educating women, celebrate the accomplishments of the institution’s distinguished graduates, and reflect on the scourge of racism that is also a part of the school’s history, said Binta Diakite, president of the Black Student Alliance.
Founded in 1897 by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Trinity had a ground-breaking mission as the first Catholic liberal arts college for women in the U.S. The college was established to break down barriers for white women. The institution was segregated until 1948, when it admitted the first women of color.
Though Trinity was among the first Catholic women’s colleges in the U.S. to desegregate, it was not free of racism in the 1960s and 1970s, all three of the panelists told the audience.
Clark, Crawl and Johnson-Bland shared glaring examples of racism and discrimination among the staff and students on campus.
Finding a room on campus became a problem, with some Black students being told the school couldn’t provide money for their board when money wasn’t an issue for them, while other Black students were told the parents of the white students would have to agree to let them live among their children on campus.
“It’s important that we look at Trinity’s positive role in women’s history, but it’s equally important that we’re honest about all of our history, even the ugly parts,” said Sister Mary Hayes, a woman religious with the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and a Trinity graduate who currently serves as the university’s archivist.
“These are the women I admire,” Diakite said of the panelists, and insisted their perseverance brought about change in policies and attitudes on the Trinity campus.
Over the last few decades Trinity went from a college for mostly white women to a university with an enrollment that is now predominately women of color.
With a student body that is 55% Black and 30% Hispanic, the U.S. Department of Education has classified Trinity as one of only three private colleges that are both predominantly Black and Hispanic serving institutions.
Though all the panelists endured racism during their time at Trinity, they also stressed the institution helped lay the foundation for their future successes as women in a male-dominated society.
Women have had to overcome a long legacy of second-class citizenship in the U.S. and such pioneers as Abigail Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, and Rosa Parks made sacrifices and fought relentlessly for equality and justice for their sex.Women’s History Month has been consistently observed in the U.S. annually in the month of March since 1987.