Ben Binversie:
00:04 When you live to be 105 years old, you’ve got a lot to say and Edith Renfrow Smith is no exception. Today we talk with the 1937 grad. The first African American woman to graduate from 51˛čąÝapp.
Ben Binversie:
00:21 (singing).
Ben Binversie:
00:31 This is All Things 51˛čąÝapp. I’m your host Ben Binversie. On today’s show, we’re talking to Edith Renfrow Smith, the first African American woman to graduate from the College, from the class of 1937, about her family’s history, growing up in the town of 51˛čąÝapp, and the secret to living to 105 years old. The journey of a 51˛čąÝappian superager coming up next after I remind you that the information and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals involved and do not represent the views of 51˛čąÝapp College.
Ben Binversie:
01:07 Edith Renfrow Smith was born in 51˛čąÝapp, Iowa, on July 14, 1914. The fifth of six children of Lee and Eva Renfrow, one of the only African American families in 51˛čąÝapp at the time, but her story begins long before that. On her mother’s side Edith’s grandfather, George Craig, was an escaped slave who later settled in 51˛čąÝapp and worked as a barber. Like so many freed slaves and their children the Renfrow family understood the power of education. From the outset, education was the priority in the household. They sent all their kids to college and all the children worked to support each other’s education.
Ben Binversie:
01:44 Edith ended up being the only one to attend 51˛čąÝapp College and she graduated in 1937 with a major in psychology and minor in economics and history. After graduating, Edith worked for the YWCA, the University of Chicago, the state of Illinois, the city of Chicago, and then as a public school teacher in Chicago for over 20 years. That’s where she resides now, where she’s continued to volunteer for the Art Institute and Goodwill. I sat down to talk with Edith before commencement this past May when she received an honorary degree from the College. She took me back to what it was like growing up in 51˛čąÝapp in the 1920s.
Edith R. Smith:
02:21 I had always lived at 411 First Avenue and went to Davis School.
Ben Binversie:
02:25 Elementary, yeah.
Edith R. Smith:
02:29 I went to the middle school. Then went to the high school. Then went to the College. So you see, my whole life has been here.
Ben Binversie:
02:40 Is here in this town.
Edith R. Smith:
02:40 Yeah. You know they had the Brande apartment buildings? My brother had to work to help because there was no money. And so he cleaned the stairways...
Ben Binversie:
02:57 Of the Brande.
Edith R. Smith:
02:57 Of the Brande Apartments. My mother said, “My son is not going to be a janitor.” How she did it, I don’t know, but she sent him, at 13, to Hampton Institute. He never came back. That was the last time I saw my brother until he had been married because he never came back.
Ben Binversie:
03:23 Really?
Edith R. Smith:
03:24 Mm-hmm (affirmative). And everybody in the family helped each other to go through school. Because that was the aim. Everyone had to have an education. If you had an education, no one could take the education away from you.
Ben Binversie:
03:39 Where do you think that value of education that your parents had, and then, that got dispersed to all of you children? Because you all went on to college, not all to 51˛čąÝapp, necessarily.
Edith R. Smith:
03:54 No. I’m the only one that wanted to go to 51˛čąÝapp.
Ben Binversie:
03:54 Really?
Edith R. Smith:
03:56 And my sister had worked for the president of 51˛čąÝapp College. His name was Nollen and his wife wanted my sister to go to Fisk. Okay. So they did it to get her to go to the Fisk. But when she went to Fisk, she was not used to prejudice. It was a different kind of prejudice. These were Black people who did not like people who were dark and she was darker, so.
Edith R. Smith:
04:28 So she had a nervous breakdown and had to come home. In the meantime, my sister, who was next to her, who was two years younger than she, was working in Newton for the family. All of them worked in service. My sister, the oldest one, worked for the Ennis family, who had the first electric car. But they all went to high school. Everybody had to go to high school. Everybody had to go to school. They had to work, but they had to go to high school too.
Edith R. Smith:
05:09 So all the older ones finished 51˛čąÝapp. Well, all six of us finished 51˛čąÝapp High School. We just all had to go to school. We all had to work. My mother was insistent that we had things.
Edith R. Smith:
05:28 For instance, I worked for them for the Needums and I worked for the Swishers and the Swishers had the upscale dress shop in 51˛čąÝapp. And it was right between the Lincoln, I mean the Smith’s funeral home, and the manor. That’s where their house was. That house has gone now. And I used to wash those steps down on hands and knees and that was for three hours. And then I work for another woman at Northwest St., she was right at 10th Avenue, and for three hours. That was my music lesson. And when she didn’t want me anymore, then that’s where the work from Mrs. Needum, who was a court reporter, and so I could still get my music lessons.
Ben Binversie:
06:20 So why do you think your parents were, were so keen on all of you kids going to school?
Edith R. Smith:
06:26 Well, my mother was always interested, because when she finished high school, I mean whatever school they had, she went out. That was when she went down South as a nanny, she had just finished eighth grade.
Ben Binversie:
06:42 Wow.
Edith R. Smith:
06:43 And books were so important to her. And she always read and taught. And my mother was a great talker and a great storyteller and she talked all the time. So it was great. See we always had a home.
Edith R. Smith:
07:04 My father always put in a big garden. My mother canned everything in the garden that she could. And every March she bought 55 chickens. So, and you know how cold it was in Iowa?
Ben Binversie:
07:21 Yeah.
Edith R. Smith:
07:24 In the dining room we had a little alcove, just about to there. And it wasn’t very wide and we had to put papers down, little chicks, because they couldn’t be outside. But see by the time they feathered out, you could let them outdoors.
Ben Binversie:
07:41 Yeah, those chickens would not have survived this winter.
Edith R. Smith:
07:43 Oh, no! But she saw to it that they survived, that they were ready to eat by July the fourth.
Ben Binversie:
07:50 Okay. So what was it like growing up in 51˛čąÝapp back then, specifically being one of just a handful of African Americans in 51˛čąÝapp? Were there any other families in town?
Edith R. Smith:
08:02 If there were, they didn’t have children.
Ben Binversie:
08:04 Okay.
Edith R. Smith:
08:05 There was a couple who lived by the lake. You know Lake Nyanza?
Ben Binversie:
08:10 Yeah.
Edith R. Smith:
08:10 They lived down there. And then there was another family that lived just off the railroad track and Center Street, that first house, which you see when mama had children... Nobody was here with children. And then later on the Tibbs moved here and they were related to the Fredricks who lived on Cedric, but those weren’t... We were all separate. So we didn’t associate.
Edith R. Smith:
08:43 And then, my uncle was a cook in a girl’s dorm and his friend was a cook in the men’s dorm. But you see, they didn’t have any children. So he didn’t associate with us. So we didn’t see any colored people. We call it colored people then.
Ben Binversie:
09:06 And what was that like as a kid growing up?
Edith R. Smith:
09:09 Well, as a kid, just like kids. You’re different; they you call you names, but you see, you couldn’t play with them. My mother didn’t allow us out of the yard.
Ben Binversie:
09:24 Really?
Edith R. Smith:
09:25 You believe it those people? So they called you names. So what? Didn’t hurt you did it?
Ben Binversie:
09:32 So your mom was tough.
Edith R. Smith:
09:35 She was a tough lady, yeah, in that she taught us there’s nobody born better than you. They may have more money, they may have more clothes, many are beautiful, may live in a better house, but remember no one, no one, not even the President of the United States, is better than you.
Ben Binversie:
10:03 Especially not now.
Edith R. Smith:
10:04 Well, I was hurting. She said, “Just remember that.” So they must not be very good. They’re not better than you. And we had an ice cream place here run by two Greeks. We weren’t allowed in there. No Black person come in here. But because my brother was cleaned up, when he came home for nine o’clock and he’d always bring mama a dish of ice cream. I don’t know how he did it, but he did.
Ben Binversie:
10:41 I mean, we don’t talk about segregation as much in Northern States and Jim Crow laws and things like that.
Edith R. Smith:
10:52 Oh, they had a lot.
Ben Binversie:
10:52 It still existed here.
Edith R. Smith:
10:54 Oh, lots and lots, even here. You know, it was a struggle. It was a struggle.
Ben Binversie:
11:03 How aware were you of the history of slavery and particularly in your family when you were growing up?
Edith R. Smith:
11:11 My mother talked about everything that went on. She told us. And my grandfather, who was a runaway slave, he was sent to New Orleans when he was 14 because he was a big boy and he could work. And he was sold. The first plantation he was sold to was Algiers. This is the story my mother told us. Now I have some relatives in California that have some different stories.
Edith R. Smith:
11:41 So anyway, he was sold to this plantation in Algiers and the overseer was very mean. And so he didn’t want a kid who cried all the time. And so he was mean to my grandfather. And so my grandfather decided, “I want to get sick.” So he drank swamp water, ate fat meat, and put tobacco juice in his eyes. So he was blind. So they send him back to New Orleans.
Edith R. Smith:
12:16 And this time he was sold to a plantation in Mississippi, and the overseer was very nice. I guess he realized that my grandfather was young. And anyway, he let him run away. And so when he got back to Arkansas, his brother, whose name was George, what had been made a free slave. So he took his brother’s name and ran away. That’s my mother’s story.
Ben Binversie:
12:48 Yeah. It’s a remarkable story.
Edith R. Smith:
12:50 Yeah. That’s what she talked to us about, me mostly because my brother was small and younger.
Ben Binversie:
13:00 So what was it like going to 51˛čąÝapp College?
Edith R. Smith:
13:06 Well, 51˛čąÝapp College, they were wonderful because they knew I had no money. I stayed an extra half year at 51˛čąÝapp high school to take a special secretarial course. And then, when I went to College, then I worked. They gave me a job and with Harvey Uhlenhopp, he was, the two of us were in the duplicating office, and later on I was a help the education professor. And I know he saw... It was real cold. So he asked me to stay at the house with he and his wife. I didn’t have to walk all the way from home.
Ben Binversie:
13:52 And you studied psychology and economics and 51˛čąÝapp. What were the courses like and what was campus life like?
Edith R. Smith:
14:02 Oh, I thought campus life was wonderful because I was associated with Reed, that was the women’s dorm. Yeah. And all their activities I participated in. And then, the botany professor’s wife had the Campfire Girls. So I belonged to the Campfire Girls Squad and 51˛čąÝapp College had always been associated with us because the student [inaudible 00:14:33] what was called the Uncle Sam’s Club and that was for underprivileged children who didn’t have this than that.
Edith R. Smith:
14:41 So they did games and they did, on Sunday afternoon, we went to Uncle Sam’s club. So we would always been associated, and if they have a concert, they take the children up there with the concerts. So you see we were always a part of College. it was just another home.
Edith R. Smith:
14:58 And you know when you get used to people shunning you, you don’t pay any attention to it. Well, I didn’t. Other people did, but they said, “Oh don’t you?”
Edith R. Smith:
15:11 “I don’t hear them,” which I didn’t because I was one paying attention and I didn’t care because, well, I’m heading there anyway. Let them say what they want, and I want this and what I wanted was more important.
Ben Binversie:
15:29 Did you end up making some good friends during your time at the College?
Edith R. Smith:
15:32 Oh, yes. Two girls that came from the Northern part of Iowa. One of them died early, which she had been a minister’s daughter, and the other one’s a farmer’s daughter, and they were both wonderful friends after all. Neither one of them to stayed at 51˛čąÝapp after the first year. So one moved to Blairsburg, the other one moved to Charles City.
Ben Binversie:
16:07 So you were the first African American woman to graduate from 51˛čąÝapp. The Jackie Robinson of 51˛čąÝapp before Jackie Robinson was Jackie Robinson. Maybe more aptly Jackie Robinson was the Edith Renfrow Smith of major league baseball.
Edith R. Smith:
16:22 Mm-hmm (affirmative). He was.
Ben Binversie:
16:25 So I mean it’s remarkable to think about how your family went from your great grandmother being a slave, and then, just two generations later you’ve got a family full of college graduates. It’s remarkable.
Edith R. Smith:
16:40 Well, I think it’s somewhere in genes. You have a person who instills a goal in the individual. I think that’s the only thing I can think about that made the difference because that was the only thing we ever heard was “Get an education,” and she was so sorry that she had to stop school. That meant so much to her.
Edith R. Smith:
17:13 When I was at grammar school, she saw all one of my geography textbooks. She saw the beautiful picture. She said, “Oh, if I had already had pictures like that when I went to school.”
Ben Binversie:
17:27 For many college graduates and 51˛čąÝapp people that I talked to, it’s hard for them to put into words how their time at 51˛čąÝapp shaped who they are as a person, because if like me, they don’t have enough perspective because they only graduated a couple of years ago. But if anybody has enough perspective, I think it’s you. So how do you understand kind of the lasting impact that 51˛čąÝapp, both the College and growing up in the town has had on you?
Edith R. Smith:
17:55 Well, one of the things about 51˛čąÝapp, they had so many people who are interested in me as an individual because Mrs. Needum... That winter it was 26 below and she had an old fur jacket. It was all to pieces. She said, “Here, take me to the dressmakers, and see if she can make you a warm coat.” So she was interested in the fact that I was walking back and forth to school that she wanted to make her contribution to my being able to continue to go to school.
Edith R. Smith:
18:32 And there was another family, the Gallaghers, they just had boys and Mrs. Gallagher, and the congregational church was right here. And my mother always did the communion for them. And you see all those people in the church and we had people who didn’t like us. But that makes a difference when you have people who really see. See so many people, they don’t see you. They say, “Oh, I’m just here.” Right there, they couldn’t see me because they were looking, which you see so many people in 51˛čąÝapp, they saw me as an individual.
Edith R. Smith:
19:10 “Those are the Renfrow children help them.” That’s what I think so. That’s my philosophy.
Ben Binversie:
19:21 There you go. So after you graduated, you moved to Chicago.
Edith R. Smith:
19:23 See, there were 12 graduates who went to Chicago because in 1937 no money and no jobs. And so they let us go. I got a job at the YWCA.
Edith R. Smith:
19:37 See, the first job was $75 a month. That was a lot of money. Without that, the women’s association at 51˛čąÝapp College paid for my graduation. I couldn’t pay for it. I had no money. They paid for it. So they told me, when I had a job, pay back the money. So of the 75 I paid 25 to 51˛čąÝapp College to pay for my graduation. So, you see all the people that were interested in me? “I will help her. She wants to graduate. So we help.”
Edith R. Smith:
20:16 So I think that you can say I did it. It was because these people said “she wants it; let’s help.”
Ben Binversie:
20:27 Yeah. It takes a village.
Edith R. Smith:
20:31 It does and that’s just right. It takes a village.
Ben Binversie:
20:33 So you went on to teach in Chicago public schools for 20 years and we’ll talk about that a little bit. But in that role and just in general in your life, I imagine you’ve probably become a mentor for other people.
Edith R. Smith:
20:46 Well.
Ben Binversie:
20:48 And so how do you... Because it took a lot of mentors for you to get to where you were. So how do you think about your work?
Edith R. Smith:
20:57 Well, I talked about 51˛čąÝapp all the time because 51˛čąÝapp is just up here. Always has been. So I think that’s one reason because Herbie Hancock came here, Samantha Massingale came here because of things I said about 51˛čąÝapp.
Ben Binversie:
21:15 So you’ve had an influence on 51˛čąÝappians that came past you?
Edith R. Smith:
21:20 Well, I think so. And my daughter and Herbie, we lived across the street from each other and both of them, about three and they had a little window, and in the morning, they had their fingers up, peeking at each other across the street. So our families were friends.
Ben Binversie:
21:40 Wow. So as a school teacher in Chicago, what are the biggest challenges that you faced?
Edith R. Smith:
21:48 The challenges was trying to teach the children: “You are kind to each other. You don’t talk about each other and you don’t jump on things that are unimportant.”
Edith R. Smith:
22:06 They had such a silly idea about, “Oh, she said something about my mother.”
Edith R. Smith:
22:10 I said, “Does she know your mother?”
Edith R. Smith:
22:12 “No.”
Edith R. Smith:
22:13 “Then what are you worrying about?”
Edith R. Smith:
22:17 Children have to learn to think and you see it’s not big things that’s happened to kids, it’s the small things.
Ben Binversie:
22:25 And they don’t teach you when you’re becoming a teacher how to necessarily deal with those little things. That’s something you have to figure out.
Edith R. Smith:
22:34 And you have to think about yourself that this is something that they had been taught. You’re supposed to get upset. Why were you taught to get upset? That isn’t anything to do with you. That’s somebody just is talking. So you have to think and use your head.
Edith R. Smith:
22:53 That’s another thing I always tried to instill on them. Use your head not theirs. Use yours. Think about what you’re going to do.
Ben Binversie:
23:06 So I don’t usually talk about the, the age of my guests when I interview them, but with you, I think it’s probably a point of pride so we can discuss. It’s not a secret. Your 104 years old and because of your remarkable age, you’ve been a part of the superagers research study. So I have to ask, between you and me, you can tell me your secret about how you’ve come to be so sharp at such an old age.
Edith R. Smith:
23:35 I have no idea. You know, I have always kept doing things, and I always question you, if you tell me you can’t who said you couldn’t? You can’t? Oh no, there’s no, there’s just try. Now if you didn’t make it when you tried, but you did try.
Ben Binversie:
23:55 Right. I know when you were in college you were very active. You played a lot of sports.
Edith R. Smith:
24:00 Oh, yes. I loved them, and in high school too, because you know what? I had intramural sports too and they went to all the little schools. And one of the things is I never disliked. Now I have a lot of dislikes when it came to food, but things I could participate I liked.
Ben Binversie:
24:23 You liked those?
Edith R. Smith:
24:24 And I liked. I wanted to be good.
Ben Binversie:
24:28 Yeah. As as all kids do. But I know you’re not out on the basketball court shooting hoops too much anymore.
Edith R. Smith:
24:36 I don’t do anything. They say, “You exercise?” Nope.
Edith R. Smith:
24:40 Listen, we had calisthenics when we were in high school. You know that rope that hangs up the...
Ben Binversie:
24:45 Yeah.
Edith R. Smith:
24:47 We had to climb up there. You know the parallel bars? We had to do that and the hooks that we... So I get along. I like to do it.
Ben Binversie:
24:57 So now-
Edith R. Smith:
24:59 And you know, so that, “Oh, I don’t like to do that.” I don’t know. I never actually. When I was in eighth grade, we had to take home-ec and we were supposed to eat everything that we cooked. Well I don’t eat legumes. So I cook beans and Ms. Robinson said, “You have to eat.”
Edith R. Smith:
25:20 I said, “Nm-hmm (negative). I don’t like”
Edith R. Smith:
25:25 She said, “Well, you won’t get a grade?”
Edith R. Smith:
25:27 I said, “Sorry.”
Ben Binversie:
25:30 I was talking with Amy Tan about this as well. She’s very aware of her own mortality. She thinks about death.
Edith R. Smith:
25:37 Oh yes, she does.
Ben Binversie:
25:38 Very often. Yeah. Every day [crosstalk 00:25:41].
Edith R. Smith:
25:40 But you see, she has so many things wrong. Oh thousands of things. I just say, “Oh my goodness, how did you go get all those?”
Ben Binversie:
25:49 She certainly has had a traumatic life in that respect.
Edith R. Smith:
25:52 Yeah. I mean she was bitten by a tick and she got that in her blood system. How do you know? We went all through the woods because I was a Campfire Girl who went out and-
Ben Binversie:
26:10 No ticks.
Edith R. Smith:
26:11 If I had one, I don’t know. But she had one and they said that’s what... I don’t know. Something in her blood. I don’t know.
Ben Binversie:
26:22 So she said because of that she thinks about her life and what matters because she’s had experiences where she was either close to death or a lot of people in her family did die when she was young.
Edith R. Smith:
26:37 That’s what happened in my family.
Ben Binversie:
26:39 Okay.
Edith R. Smith:
26:39 So many of them died. And so my sister, my cousin and I... When I was about six months older and we all thought... We both thought we’d die at 45.
Ben Binversie:
26:49 Really?
Edith R. Smith:
26:51 Yeah. When I was 45, I said I’m not dead yet.
Ben Binversie:
26:56 What’s going on? Look around.
Edith R. Smith:
26:57 I’m not dead.
Ben Binversie:
26:58 Well, I guess I’ll do another 45.
Edith R. Smith:
27:00 Yeah, I might. I might be able to keep going.
Ben Binversie:
27:06 So what are some of the things in your recent years that you’ve found that keep you going? When you get up in the morning, what are some of the things, some of the activities that you do?
Edith R. Smith:
27:13 I say, “Where am I going today? What do I want to cook today? What book am I going to find?” See, I always have something I’d like to do.
Ben Binversie:
27:23 Yeah, and you still keep that positive outlook?
Edith R. Smith:
27:28 Things that I... You worry about these things that you have no control over. You don’t have any control over whether somebody is going to hit you in the head and you die or a car is going to come. You know? I just think of all the awful things that happen to people. You’re minding your own business, you’re gone. Somebody was crazy. That’s why you need to pay attention to what you’re doing today at this minute. It doesn’t matter.
Edith R. Smith:
27:56 See, we, each of us has a responsibility. We have a responsibility. If I can do something today to make you change and feel better about you and about that person, then I have had a good day. If I can’t help you, then I have spent a rotten day.
Ben Binversie:
28:19 So I read a lot about 51˛čąÝapp’s history and all the old factories that were here. And I sometimes look at the old pictures of downtown and some of the other places on campus, and I see the new buildings that are there now, and I think what a different place.
Edith R. Smith:
28:34 Yeah. I looked today. We came down in back of a ARH, and you all that-
Ben Binversie:
28:41 The new building.
Edith R. Smith:
28:41 The new building on East side? I said, “Oh, I remembered all the things because I used to work for the professor in that building. Theatre was in that building and the students gave a play called The Red Sea oh they had so much to say.
Edith R. Smith:
29:05 It’s just sad that things get and bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think when you get too many people, some of these little ones get lost drops through the cracks. That’s what I mean. And because see, back then I knew the professors, I knew their children.
Ben Binversie:
29:42 So what do you think it would be like if you went to 51˛čąÝapp?
Edith R. Smith:
29:43 Oh, I wouldn’t like it. I wouldn’t like it.
Ben Binversie:
29:43 No?
Edith R. Smith:
29:47 See education meant something else to me other than what they’re doing now. No. And many things has happened many, many, many years ago, were important that we’re forgetting?
Ben Binversie:
29:54 So you’re receiving a an honorary degree tomorrow.
Edith R. Smith:
29:57 Oh, yes. That was a surprise. You know what I say? The best degree I would ever get, if I found out that when they examine my brain, they found out what was going on. See that. See, that’s why I think that’s good.
Ben Binversie:
30:12 Yeah. That would be a treat.
Edith R. Smith:
30:21 And you say, I won’t know about it., but somebody will and if somebody gets help that will be worth anything to know that this made an advancement in their life.
Ben Binversie:
30:32 Yeah. Yeah. But I don’t know. You keep going at this rate and nobody’s ever going to be able to cut your brain out because they’re just going to be living.
Edith R. Smith:
30:38 Don’t worry about a thing. Don’t worry. I will say. No, you know that, as I said, I was born with a number and when that number is up, I’ll be gone. That’s all.
Ben Binversie:
30:53 So what advice do you have for the graduates that will be walking across [crosstalk 00:30:58].
Edith R. Smith:
30:57 For the graduates? I would say do the best to can each and every day and every minute of it. Don’t forget you as an individual are important.
Ben Binversie:
31:11 Those are good words. Well, thank you, Edith, for taking the time to talk. It’s been an absolute pleasure to meet you.
Edith R. Smith:
31:16 Oh, good. I’m glad.
Ben Binversie:
31:16 Thank you very much.
Edith R. Smith:
31:19 Oh, thank you.
Ben Binversie:
31:27 Edith Renfrow Smith grew up in 51˛čąÝapp and graduated from the College in 1937 as the first African American woman in the College’s history to do so. She was honored for her remarkable life this past may at commencement when she received an honorary degree. Check out our website, grinnell.edu/podcast where you can find photos from Edith’s childhood in 51˛čąÝapp, a news clipping from her graduation, which offers a pretty condescending and racialized account of the family’s educational success and interviews that she did for the 51˛čąÝapp magazine in 2007 as well as an interview with our own local historian and professor emeritus Dan Kaiser from the Drake community library in 2015. You can also watch her speech from commencement and find other highlights from her life.
Ben Binversie:
32:11 Edith’s life has been remarkable in many ways and I’m happy the College finally got around to formally recognizing her in that way, but there are other markers of Edith’s impact here as well. On campus we have the Smith art gallery and the Rosenfield center named in her honor, and the most recent edition, the Edith Renfrow Smith Black Women’s Library in the Black Cultural Center on campus.
Ben Binversie:
32:32 I reached out to Rayyon Robinson who started the library and named it in Edith’s honor.
Rayyon Robinson:
32:37 I am a recent graduate of class of 2019, an anthropology major and a future librarian.
Ben Binversie:
32:44 She’s from Algiers, a historically black neighborhood of New Orleans where coincidentally Edith’s grandfather was first sold into slavery. I’ll let Rayyon tell the story of where the idea for the library came from.
Rayyon Robinson:
32:57 And as a child, I immediately gravitated towards the power of literature. Once I found a book that I felt reflected myself and my community, I could not stop reading. This is what opened the gateway for me to books that actually had me in mind.
Rayyon Robinson:
33:22 I created the Edith Renfrow Smith Library because I realized on campus that there was a limit to the amount of Black cultural and intellectual material you could find by Black women, authors, and scholars. If the class was not specifically geared towards Black women or race or gender, it was really hard to find a book written by a Black woman. I also realized that I only knew about five or six Black woman authors. Finally, I was ready to combat the invisibility of Black women on campus and was looking for a way to recreate the Well Read Black Girls Book Club, which is a book club of about seven scholars, Black women scholars on campus, that really works to empower Black women through literature.
Rayyon Robinson:
34:24 So I created this library. I curated the first collection and I was able to catalog this collection with Burling and Burling library actually committed to purchasing any titles they didn’t already have in their collection. And that process really laid the foundation for me into understanding what goes into actually putting a library together.
Rayyon Robinson:
34:52 Now I decided to name the library after an Edith because I wanted the library to have a very strong name and it could sort of be a symbol for it. I’m hoping that the library continues to expand and to it being a resource for Black women on campus, not only for academic purposes, research purposes, but for enjoyment. I want Black and Brown women on campus to feel comfortable to read a book, to find themselves in that book, and then, reach for another and not have to feel overwhelmed by constantly searching. The books are there at the Black Cultural Center and I really hope that people are using it and enjoying it.
Ben Binversie:
35:50 If you’re a current student or alumni visiting campus, you can check out the library at the BCC. Alumni, faculty, and staff have already donated books either from their own collection or through the libraries wishlist on Amazon. You can find that link on our website as well.
Ben Binversie:
36:05 Edith also gave me some great ideas for stories about the Campfire Girls, Uncle Sam’s Club, and the Rosenwald Scholars Program. I was also thinking about some stories that I read on Dan Kaiser’s blogs, 51˛čąÝapp stories, and the Ricker Chronicles about local 51˛čąÝapp history. There’s one about the KKK’s presence in 51˛čąÝapp and I wanted to mention it.
Ben Binversie:
36:25 Apparently there was a cross burning on the College golf course in 1923 and the report alleged that a KKK group had met in 51˛čąÝapp two weeks earlier. Outside of that and a few mentions in local newspapers, there’s little evidence to suggest much of a Klan presence in 51˛čąÝapp, but the cross burning must’ve been a shock to many in 51˛čąÝapp.
Ben Binversie:
36:45 I was thinking about Edith, who would’ve been only nine at that time. I didn’t get the chance to ask her if she remembered the event, but she most certainly faced racial prejudice throughout her time in 51˛čąÝapp. Edith remembered that African Americans were not welcome at Candyland, the town’s ice cream parlor, and if they went to the movies, they had to sit in the balcony. Economically, most African Americans in town worked low status, low paying jobs.
Ben Binversie:
37:09 As you heard in the interview, Edith has a remarkably positive attitude about dealing with racism. Not surprisingly, she didn’t focus too much on it during our conversation, instead focusing on the people who saw her as an individual and one worthy of their assistance and mentorship. Her positivity probably belies the extent of racism present in 51˛čąÝapp during her childhood and even at the College, but I can’t help but think it’s also a contributing factor to how she’s lived to 105 years old.
Ben Binversie:
37:36 I know it’s anecdotal because we’re talking about one very special woman, but there are many studies that document the negative health effects of racism on its victims and many focus on the effects of prolonged stress on people’s bodies. So perhaps as an antidote to that stress, Edith employed that practical optimism, ignoring bigots and maybe adding years to her life in the process. That’s my uninformed medical opinion and I’m sticking to it. It’s either that or her picky eating, but we’ll have to wait to see what the team of scientists at Northwestern discover from their study of superagers.
Ben Binversie:
38:13 And that’s it for this episode. Next time we’re going to go back into 51˛čąÝapp history even further than Edith Renfrow Smith can remember. We’ll talk to Alison Haack about the infamous cyclone of 1882 and the effect it had on 51˛čąÝapp.
Ben Binversie:
38:27 We’ll be digging into the archives for that one. So we’ll also talk with Chris Jones, the College archivist, about his work and what he’s learned about the College from the basement of Burling library. That’s next time on All Things 51˛čąÝapp.
Ben Binversie:
38:38 Music for today’s show comes from Brett Newski and Podington Bear. If you’d like to contact the show, email us at podcast@grinnell.edu or check out our website, grinnell.edu/podcast for more information about the guests on today’s show, and don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. I’m your host, Ben. Binversie. Stay young, 51˛čąÝappians.