Campus History Committee at JMU

Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. — Presenting a key part of JMU history! Registration link in comments.

Join us as we remember the times, the rich history, and the impact CGS had on the JMU community.

Formally organized in 1974, the CGS played an important role in the recruitment and retention of Black students at Madison College, later JMU.

Confirmed panelists include: Deborah Tompkins Johnson, CGS member, 1974-1978; Dr. Byron Bullock, CMSS director 1985-99; Troy Strong, CGS president, 1985-86; L. Anthony Baker, CGS director, 1989-91; Dr. Lisa Winn Bryan, CGS soloist and director, 1988-90; Monyette Martin, CGS member, 1989-92; and more!

How good is a library if it only tells the stories of certain groups?
Through our VIVA statewide partnership, JMU now has access to six primary source collections relating to gender diversity, African American history, and Indigenous history and culture:
https://www.lib.jmu.edu/new-collections-viva-2022/

Reclaimed Histories: Even more of the fascinating story of Title IX at JMU:

Title IX – Madison in the 70s Introduction to Title IX at Madison College: 1972-1979 Posted on April 10, 2013 by mulroomm Post Author: Jacob Houser Since its inception, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 has provided millions of women with the opportunity to engage in sports at the high school and collegiate levels...

Let's extend Women's History month a bit ...

Reclaimed Histories: Lee Morrison (1926-2015)

“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of s*x, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” ~Title IX

Did you know that one of JMU’s professors, Dr. Lonnie Leotus “Lee” Morrison, had a role in the enactment of Title IX? Morrison came to Madison College in 1954 to coach and teach courses in physical education. She was working on her doctorate at Indiana University at that time but could not take certain courses in athletic training or coaching because she was a woman. She soon became an active leader in the national movement for equality in women’s sports.

College women’s ability to play competitive team sports was largely limited to intramurals. In the 1960s, Morrison helped change that by founding several statewide and regional associations for intercollegiate women’s athletics. In 1971, Morrison co-founded the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW); she eventually held numerous leadership positions in this organization, including president. The AIAW played a similar role to the NCAA for men’s athletics programs and quickly evolved into an influential national organization.
Because of her work with AIAW, Morrison was invited to join a committee in Washington, D.C., that testified before Congress and interpreted and promoted Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title IX was signed into law on June 23, 1972, thereby enabling girls and women to have equitable opportunities in education and sport.

An influential figure on campus, she served on the committee that hired President Ronald C. Carrier. In 1972, Morrison became Associate Director of Athletics at Madison and in that role, she helped build out JMU’s early men’s programs. From 1975-1983, she served on the US Olympic Committee’s Executive Board and became an international advocate for women and sport. She co-wrote the constitution of the Faculty Senate and served on President Ronald Carrier's Think Tank on Women's Issues.

Throughout her career she won many awards for her work to end discrimination against women athletes. In the 1990s, she helped establish the Morrison-Bruce Center for the Promotion of Physical Activity for Girls and Women on the JMU campus. In 2000, she was inducted in the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

See more:

Remembering Women’s Athletics Legend Dr. Lee Morrison - James Madison University Athletics Dr. Lee Morrison passed away on May 4, leaving behind a legacy of promotion of opportunities for women in sports and a significant impact made on the women's sports programs at JMU.

March 22, 1977: Virginia Gov. Mills E. Godwin signed the bill changing the name of Madison College to James Madison University. The name change was effective July 1.

On Sheary Darcus Johnson and Darcus Johnson Hall: "... and in a moment of racial reckoning, James Madison University is now honoring the woman who broke the mold on its campus." https://www.wric.com/community/soul-of-rva-the-life-and-legacy-of-dr-sheary-darcus-johnson-jmus-first-black-graduate/?fbclid=IwAR2LIrjGylkBs_20PWlkg9NwlB5s62CGQuPxXaSQLmX0ndSiXYeRTKuxWEI

Soul of RVA: The life and legacy of Dr. Sheary Darcus Johnson, JMU’s first black graduate Dr. Sheary Darcus Johnson believes it is her life’s mission to give back to her community.

Reclaimed Histories: Early Latina Students (1920s - 1930s)

Mary Jimenez—the school’s first known Latina matriculate—enrolled in the State Teachers College at Harrisonburg (now JMU) in 1926 as a sophomore. Jimenez was from Panama City, Panama and was active at the college in the Athletic Association and YWCA.

Ten years later, in the fall of 1936, two students from Puerto Rico enrolled in the school. Ana Violeta Haddock, from Guayama, Puerto Rico, graduated the following spring with a degree in home economics. Carmin Blondet, also from Guayama, entered as a freshman and was active in the Alpha Literary Society, Hiking Club, and YWCA. Haddock recalled their first impressions of the college and surrounding community in a November 1936 article in The Breeze titled “Primeras Impressiones en un Colegio Americano.”

Maria Fuertes, from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, graduated from Madison College in 1938 with a degree in home economics. In the 1938 Schoolma’am yearbook, a caption next to Fuertes’s senior portrait reads, “From distant climes, tall and dark, in private life speaks Spanish.”

In June 1939, Iris Alina Ruiz (1921-2010) traveled on the SS Coamo from San Juan, Puerto Rico to New York en route to Madison College where she studied elementary education. In addition to being a member of the YWCA and Lee Literary Society, Ruiz was a charter member of the college’s Spanish club, which formed in 1940. Her personal papers, mostly photographs and drawings, are held by JMU Special Collections: https://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/manuscripts/sc0223/.

March 14, 1908: Virginia Governor Claude A. Swanson signed the General Assembly bill creating the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg.

Reclaimed Histories: Faculty Women of Madison College (est. 1973)

Organized by white women to resist gender-based pay discrimination in 1973, the Women’s Faculty Caucus of Madison College began the equity effort that evolved into the Madison Caucus for Gender Equality. Today’s caucus advocates for all genders, races, ethnicities, and identities. Read a more detailed history on the MCGE web page.

History of the Madison Caucus for Gender Equality History of the Madison Caucus for Gender Equality

Reclaimed Histories: Remembering Doris Harper Allen (1927-2021)

On February 19, 2021, JMU named a building after Doris Harper Allen (’19H) and the first Black employee at the university, Robert Walker Lee. Harper Allen-Lee Hall, built in 1911 and originally named Dormitory No. 2, is home to students living on campus at JMU. Harper Allen died this week, on March 4, 2021, in Harrisonburg.

Doris Harper Allen was born in 1927 in Harrisonburg’s Northeast neighborhood in her family’s residence on E. Effinger Street. While Allen was barred from attending Madison College as a student due to racial segregation in Virginia schools, she did work as a cook for Madison College president G. Tyler Miller before attending Marshall University in the early 1970s. She worked as an early childhood teacher in West Virginia and eventually returned to Harrisonburg where she became heavily involved in revitalization efforts in the Northeast neighborhood. Allen has published two books, including her well-known memoir, "The Way It Was, Not the Way It Is." Allen was a key collaborator on the "Celebrating Simms" exhibit and was integral in the 2014 renaming of Cantrell Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Way.

Allen’s awards and honors include the Shenandoah Valley Hit’s Distinguished Female Community Service Award for outstanding contributions to the Shenandoah Valley; the Huntington, West Virginia NAACP’s Freedom Fund Lifetime Achievement Award (2017); and the Black Girls Rock award from JMU’s Lambda Chi Chapter of AKA (2017). In 2019, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from James Madison University for her groundbreaking research and service to the community and JMU students.

JMU renames buildings, honors African Americans for their contributions James Madison University changed the names of three campus buildings this week to honor five African Americans who worked for or attended the school.

Reclaimed Histories: Willie R. Nickens (1895-1985)

Born in Harrisonburg in 1895, Willie Rouser Nickens grew up on Paul Street in southeast Harrisonburg. Nickens’ mother, Mary Frances “Fannie” Harris, was born into slavery, the daughter of her enslaver. Nickens graduated from Effinger Street School in 1910, part of the school’s first ever graduating class. (Nickens is the student labeled "3" in the photo, which was taken at the school in 1908.) She studied under Lucy Simms and H.A.M. Johns and was one of the first three girls to graduate. Nickens attended Hampton Institute and taught school in Elkton, Virginia, until her marriage. She attended John Wesley United Methodist Church. Denied equal access to an education, like many Black women of her time she had limited opportunities for wage work due to Jim Crow labor market practices. After returning to Harrisonburg, Nickens lived on East Johnson Street, across from the Lucy F. Simms School.

From 1944 to 1965, Nickens worked for many years as a housekeeper at Madison College, where she had charge of three Main Street sorority houses: Sprinkle, Messick and Carter. A single parent after her divorce, she raised five children. One of her three daughters worked for more than 30 years in the Bureau of Printing and Engraving in Washington, D.C. Another of her daughters worked at St. Paul’s College, a historically Black college in Lawrenceville, Virginia, that closed in 2013. Nickens died in 1985 and is buried in Newtown Cemetery.

Access a 1979 interview with Nickens in JMU's Special Collections (no special login required): https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/scoh-aa/2018/05/04/willie-nickens/

Get the report! Want to know more about why three buildings formerly named after Confederates now bear the names of five Black people who are significant in the history of JMU? https://www.jmu.edu/academic-affairs/committees-and-taskforces/CHC-process.shtml