Invisible Founders - How Two Centuries of African American Families Transformed a

Literal and metaphorical excavations at Sweet Briar College reveal how African American labor enabled the transformation of Sweet Briar Plantation into a private women's college in 1906. This volume tells the story of the invisible founders of a college founded by and for white women. Despite being built and maintained by African American families, the college did not integrate its student body for sixty years after it opened. In the process, Invisible Founders challenges our ideas of what a college "founder" is, restoring African American narratives to their deserved and central place in the story of a single institution - one that serves as a microcosm of the American South.

About the author

Lynn Rainville is Director of Institutional History and Professor of Anthropology at Washington and Lee University and former Dean of Sweet Briar College.. For over two decades she has studied the lives of exceptional, yet overlooked, Americans. This work has been supported by numerous grants and she has written five books (on Mesopotamian houses, African American cemeteries, Sweet Briar College, and Virginia’s role in World War I). She directs the Tusculum Institute for local history and historic preservation at Sweet Briar College.

Summary

Invisible Founders challenges our ideas of what a college “founder” is, restoring African American narratives to their deserved and central place in the story of a single institution.

Product details

• Authors: Lynn Rainville, Rainville Lynn
• Publisher: BERGHAHN BOOKS, INC
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.04.2022
• EAN: 9781800734449
• ISBN: 978-1-80073-444-9
• No. of pages: 232
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Education > Education system; Social sciences, law, business > Sociology > Sociological theories; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Virginia, Social & cultural history, History of Education, Social and cultural history, History of the Americas, Higher & further education, tertiary education, Higher education, tertiary education, Relating to African American / Black American people