Roslyn Smith - Bennett College for Women
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Posted By: latoya taylor on December 29, 2012 Roslyn Smith, Educator, Civil Rights Activist, was born in Princeton, West Virginia, the fifth of six children. Her mother was a domestic and her father was a railroad laborer. She was raised by her mother, grandmother, and aunt, who taught her about the "place" of black people in the South, for example, never using the public library, sitting in the back of bus, using the back door of a white family's house, and addressing white people as 'miss' or 'mister.' Ms. Smith received a Merit Scholarship to attend Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. and made the move from small town to big city in 1957. She and other Bennett women became inspired by their personal experiences and their expanding knowledge of the outside world to join the fight for civil rights. With the support of their teachers, community leaders, Dr. Willa Player (then president of Bennett), and fellow students from nearby A & T University, they targeted Woolworth's in Greensboro as the stage for the 1960 sit-ins. Looking back on her experiences now, Ms. Smith worries that Bennett women's involvement is being written out of the official history of this integral part of the civil rights movement. Check out Hidden from History: Bennett College Women and the Greensboro sit ins website http://www.socialism.com/drupal-6.8/?q=nod... Bennett College Sit in story http://bennettsitinstory.weebly.com/civil-... If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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