Black Women in the Ivory Tower, 1850-1954

Stephanie Y. Evans is assistant professor in the African American studies program and Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research at the University of Florida.

Evans delves into the broad history of higher education and black women in America between the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement.... She looks at the social and intellectual walls that had to be knocked down to gain access to institutions of higher learning. She discusses how these women brought back what they had learned to their communities to open schools and to teach, and in so doing profoundly affected the social and economic dimensions of those places. - Flavour Magazine: Black Florida Life and Style ""Throughout the book, Evans applies her critical lens with precise, stealth-like cuts through conventional depictions of higher education history."" - History of Education Quarterly ""In 1850, Lucy Stanton graduated from Oberlin College and made history as the first black woman to earn a college degree.... Evans's compelling narrative traces the higher education history of black women back to Stanton. Her examples include Anna Julia Cooper, who rose from slavery to earn her doctorate, and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College."" - Diverseeducation.com