Born in Grinnell, Iowa, Edith Renfrow Smith graduated from Grinnell Faculty in 1937 and was the solely Black pupil on campus throughout the 4.5 years that she attended the small, non-public liberal arts school. At 110 years outdated, she is the school’s first Black alumna and the oldest residing graduate of the establishment.
This week, Grinnell will dedicate and identify its latest residence corridor in honor of Renfrow Smith, recognizing her legacy, life, and dedication to neighborhood, schooling, and fairness.
Mrs. Edith Renfrow SmithJustin Hayworth, Grinnell Faculty
“The residence corridor, which extends the campus into the city, was imagined to be a dual-purpose area the place the Grinnell neighborhood might come along with campus members and work on issues of shared pursuits on equal floor,” stated Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, who holds the Louise R. Noun ’29 Chair in Gender, Girls’s, and Sexuality Research at Grinnell and serves as the college lead of Crew Renfrow.
Crew Renfrow is the analysis and recognition group that spearheaded the naming and dedication marketing campaign for Renfrow Smith and contains college, college students, alumni, and townspeople dedicated to bringing visibility to Renfrow Smith and different African Individuals who’ve known as Grinnell house since 1854.
“We made the argument to say, ‘Who else however an individual who was born and raised within the city of Grinnell, who has had a lifelong relationship with this area,” stated Beauboeuf-Lafontant in an interview with Numerous. “She embodies the 2 Grinnells, and they’ve at all times been one Grinnell in her life and in her coronary heart.”
A second-generation Iowan and proud Grinnellian, Renfrow Smith is an educator who taught for over twenty years within the Chicago Public Faculty System and spent 4 a long time volunteering in her neighborhood. The residence corridor will prominently show and honor Renfrow Smith’s contributions, with the hope of encouraging present and future Grinnell college students to mirror on her impression, resilience, and lifetime of service.
“A part of the significance of this week and the dedication, is that this challenge says you might have a historical past right here, it says someone softened the bottom so that you can be right here,” stated Beauboeuf-Lafontant. “Individuals who really feel that their biography intersects with [ Renfrow Smith’s], that they’re low-income, that they’re Black girls, that they’re girls, that they’re individuals of colour, that they’re from the city, that they are from Iowa, will begin to say, ‘wow, that is our campus.’”
Renfrow Smith will attend the Renfrow Corridor Dedication Weekend Occasions, which is able to start on Friday morning and run by means of the weekend. The deliberate occasions will embrace a reception, parade, and a mural set up, all reflecting on the life and experiences of Black college students and alumni of Grinnell. The school will even debut a photograph artwork gallery titled, “Rooted in Resilience: Celebrating the Legacy of Mrs. Edith Renfrow Smith.”
One occasion specifically, the “Guided Stroll of Edith Renfrow Smith”, will invite neighborhood members to stroll a mile within the honoree’s footwear. Valeriya Woodard, a fourth-year Grinnell pupil and member of Crew Renfrow, walked to Renfrow Smith’s childhood house in Grinnell this summer season and instantly reconnected along with her story. She organized the neighborhood stroll.
Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant (college lead of Crew Renfrow), with Mrs. Edith Renfrow Smith and Feven Getachew (first pupil member of Crew Renfrow).Justin Hayworth, Grinnell Faculty
“Mrs. Renfrow Smith walked a mile to and from campus throughout her time as a pupil at Grinnell,” stated Woodard. “Strolling that path simply actually put issues into perspective.”
The neighborhood stroll will start on campus and make stops at pivotal locations throughout Renfrow Smith’s time whereas residing within the city of Grinnell, together with her highschool, her household’s church, and the native library.
There have been two different areas on Grinnell’s campus named for Renfrow Smith, together with the Edith Renfrow Smith Black Girls’s Library within the Black Cultural Middle and The Edith Renfrow Smith Gallery, situated within the campus heart.
“By 2021, individuals didn’t know [the Student Art Gallery] was named for her,” stated Beauboeuf-Lafontant, who added that former pupil, Feven Getachew, dedicated herself to rededicating the area and getting a brand new plaque erected.
Getachew, a 2024 graduate of Grinnell, was the primary pupil member of Crew Renfrow.
“My concept is that no person, no Grinnellian, ought to undergo their time at Grinnell with out realizing her and her story,” stated Getachew. Even after Getachew efficiently deliberate the rededication occasion in 2021, she requested herself, “What’s subsequent?”
“Not everybody has an equal understanding of who she is and what she has completed,” stated Getachew. “And generally it feels late as a result of she is 110, proper? However it’s nonetheless a really large milestone in Grinnell taking accountability for its historical past and ensuring that it honors all of the pioneers which have come.”
