DAUGHTERS OF DUNN HOUSE 1953

Seven Black women reflect on their experiences at Fisk University in the 1950s in this group memoir.

At the age of 84, Towns fondly recalls “the more subtle aspects” of her time at Fisk University more than a half-century ago, noting that the school instilled in her a lifelong “thirst for knowledge” and enshrined “the belief in the contribution that African-Americans have made and continue to make to the country and the world.” Founded in the aftermath of the Civil War, Fisk emerged as one of the nation’s preeminent historically Black colleges and universities whose graduates include W.E.B. DuBois, John Lewis, and Nikki Giovanni. In the early 1950s, the school collaborated with the Ford Foundation to open their Basic College, an experimental program that offered Black teenagers the opportunity to skip their final two years of high school and complete their general course studies in college. The girls selected for the program lived in the two-story, eight-bedroom Dunn House, located in the middle of campus. Seven of the “Dunn House Girls” recount their experiences in this celebratory collection, which includes ample photographs and yearbook scans. While many of the stories emphasize the role Fisk played in shaping a generation of 20th-century Black women leaders, scholars, and activists, they also provide glimpses into the lives of Black college students in the Jim Crow South. Rozzell recalls that many of Talladega's ballet and theater programs were often attended by white citizens and that integrated YMCA regional meetings were held at Talladega; there were also Ku Klux Klan processions, when hooded terrorists drove through campus as “shotguns and Confederate flags protruded from the windows.” The book may also be useful for genealogists, as most authors include brief family histories.

An important document of Black history and celebration of higher education.