As I walk these paths

As I Walk these Paths: Honoring the Unheralded Courage of the African American Women Pioneers of the University of California, Berkeley

An essay by Gia White, Administrative Director, Global, International, & Area Studies/IES, UC Berkeley

“Thus has the Negro girl proven her right to a share of democracy. Rights and liberties of civilized humanity include the right to move freely over the face of the earth. Yet after Negro girls have labored to acquire the needed education and culture, most of the doors of industry are shut in their faces, not because of their inability, but because of their color.” Vivian Osborne Marsh, Oakland Tribune, May 9, 1926

A glance, a scent, a sound. All vehicles of memory and imagination that can transport us at any time and in any place. The sound of the Campanile bells this morning; strong, solid, reverberating, marking time as we know it as they do every day. But this day, they summon me to celebrate the courageous young African American women who came before me and whose very presence is woven into the fabric of the history of the University of California, Berkeley.

To continue exploring the history of these courageous African American women, please click on the sections below!

Part 1. Memory and imagination: reflections on history

Part 2. The first African American woman to graduate (1909)

Part 3. Pioneering cohort of African American Women Students (1919-1929)

As we continue to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the admission of women to the University of California, the significance of these African American women and their presence on the Berkeley campus cannot be overstated. Their lives ebbed and flowed with all the complexities that the human experience can bring. The burdens they carried in the midst of a society that at every turn sought to relegate them to the status of “Other,” did not succeed in preventing them from seeking full and active lives. Just the opposite. They railed against institutional racism and defied the odds. This legacy has only deepened after the historic inauguration of California’s own Kamala Harris as Vice President of the United States.

On behalf of these African American women trailblazers, let us mark their time, center their stories, and conspicuously honor their journeys at UC Berkeley for generations to come.