Hairston, Fredi, 1996-2000

The interviews focus on the entry experience of the individual into the Virginia Tech community and the interviewees' perceptions of the climate and attitudes within the university community, particularly as pertains to race and gender. The materials in this collection includes cassette tapes, DAT tapes, and transcripts of interviews with some of the first black women students at Virginia Tech (Jacquelyn Butler Blackwell, Marguerite Harper Scott, and Linda Edmunds Turner); Marva Felder Davis, first black homecoming queen; Cheryl Butler McDonald, first black woman in the Corps of Cadets; and Elaine Carter, catalyst of the project and doctoral candidate at Virginia Tech. Interviews were conducted by Elaine Dowe Carter and University Archivist Tamara Kennelly. Transcripts of interviews with students and with two staff members (Cora McDaniel Pack and Rhonda Miller Rogers) are available either in print or on the Internet at "http://spec.lib.vt.edu/archives/blackwomen/"