MHC Celebrates Hortense Parker Day April 15
Posted: April 22, 2009
It's been 126 years since Hortense Parker graduated from Mount Holyoke College, but on April 15 she and other alumnae of color were officially celebrated for the first time. Organized by students Ahyoung An '09 and Camila Curtis-Contreras '09, the first annual Hortense Parker Day featured song, history, dialogue, and an inspiring keynote address from Barbara Smith '69, an author, activist, and scholar.
A member of the class of 1883, Parker is believed to be the first woman of color to attend Mount Holyoke--although the College was not aware she was an African American until she arrived on campus. Despite the segregationist practices of the time, she was allowed to stay. She is said to have loved playing the piano, and her classmates loved to hear her play.
Smith, a member of the Albany (New York) City Council and cofounder of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, shared memories of her experiences as a student at MHC with an enthusiastic capacity audience in Chapin Auditorium. In 1965, she noted, she was “a member of the first generation of black students admitted to elite white colleges.”
“When I entered Mount Holyoke, many of the black people in the South still could not vote,” she said. And there was no separate, but equal; segregated southern black schools often didn’t go through grade 12, and teachers were not required to have a college degree.
Because Smith’s family had migrated north and settled in Cleveland, she and her twin sister attended that city’s excellent public schools; both were National Merit Scholars and academically well prepared for college. Smith said she made the “terrifying decision” to attend Mount Holyoke because the alumnae who greeted her during the “teas” of the era were “genuinely welcoming and friendly,” unlike those of other colleges.
“I knew I’d encounter racism no matter where I went, but I figured (at MHC), at least it wouldn’t be held against me that I was a woman,” she said. “But nothing in my life could’ve prepared me for the trial by fire of entering the College.”
Smith said she felt she “didn’t belong” and was expected to fail in college. MHC had fewer than 30 students of color at the time, and the “social and emotional isolation” she felt initially did affect her academic performance. Smith embraced activism of the 1960s as a student and temporarily transferred to the more liberal New School for Social Research in New York City. But she wanted to return to MHC for her senior year to undertake an independent study of four African American writers--and by then she was earning As again.
“The important thing is--as you can see me standing here tonight--I survived,” she said. “I always say I got what I came for: a stellar education.”
Before and during the evening, An and Curtis-Contreras paid tribute to Mount Holyoke’s most prominent women of color with a heavily researched multimedia presentation. In addition to Parker, the pair saluted Martha Rolston, class of 1898; honor student and social worker Frances Williams ’19; psychologist Elizabeth Alice Stubbs ’26; the Korean-born Anne Chung Hi Kim ’38; Hattie Kawahara ’43, one of three Japanese American MHC students interned in camps during World War II; Astrid Ramirez ’48, originally from Puerto Rico; Mary McHenry ’54, who later became a faculty member at Mount Holyoke (1974-1998); former trustee Linda Yu Bien ’75, student founder of MHC’s Asian Group; Rochelle Calhoun ’83, the former executive director of MHC’s Alumnae Association; Sonali Gulati ’96, now an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University; Fabiola Tafolla ’97, student chair of La Unidad; and Miki Yamashita FP ’06, who wrote and performed The Geisha Next Door in 2005.
“This just scratches the surface of our rich history,” An observed.
“We hope this event becomes institutionalized, a recognition of the school’s commitment to diversity,” Curtis-Contreras added. Smith echoed that sentiment in her closing remarks.
“We celebrate Mary Lyon as our founder. Well, Hortense Parker is a founder, too,” she said. Smith later joined An, Curtis-Contreras, Angela Wu ’09, Aiyana Potts ’10, biology professor Craig Woodard, and moderator Tanya Williams for a brief panel discussion on conditions at Mount Holyoke today.
The evening’s program was opened by Grammy nominee Evelyn Harris, an original member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, who led the MHC M & Cs, Nice Shoes, and V-8s in a rousing a cappella rendition of “Ella’s Song,” a tribute to civil rights organizer Ella Baker.
Hortense Parker Day was sponsored by the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts, the Office of the Dean of the College, Student Programs, the Alumnae Association, and the Departments of Music and Gender Studies.
Related Links:
Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts