How Higher Education Can Atone for Its Long History of Racism
Preview:
"White Men Toilet." "Colored Men Toilet."
The words stunned me like a sharp slap as I hunched over a table full of crumbling blueprints of old buildings on my campus at Trinity Washington University. Preparing for a meeting with the D.C. Historic Preservation Office concerning our plans to demolish a 1930s-era science building, I was not prepared to find this stark evidence of segregation designed into the very bones of the place. Opening another cabinet, I unrolled the plans for an even older building slated for renovation, our dining hall, built in the 1920s; there in the subbasement was the "Colored Help’s Dining Room," with the "Colored Girls’ Locker Room" nearby.
Originally published: July 26, 2019
Author: Patricia McGuire
Position: President
Institution: Trinity Washington University
Published by: The Chronicle of Higher Ed