An edition of Invisible Founders (2019)
Invisible Founders
How Two Centuries of African American Families Transformed a Plantation into a College
By Lynn Rainville
Publish Date
2019
Publisher
Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Language
eng
Pages
232
Description:
"Literal and metaphorical excavations at Sweet Briar College reveal how African American labor enabled the transformation of Sweet Briar Plantation into a private women's college in 1906. This volume tells the story of the invisible founders of a college founded by and for white women. Despite being built and maintained by African American families, the college did not integrate its student body for sixty years after it opened. In the process, Invisible Founders challenges our ideas of what a college 'founder' is, restoring African American narratives to their deserved and central place in the story of a single institution--one that serves as a microcosm of the American South"--