On Saturday, Sept. 28, Grinnell College Trustee Julie Gosselink dedicated Renfrow Hall nearly two years after the announcement that the building would be named in honor of Edith Renfrow Smith `37 — the first Black woman to graduate from the College, and, at 110, its oldest living alumna. The hall, which also includes the Civic Engagement Quad (CEQ), will be the College’s first off-campus residence when it is completed.
To commemorate the dedication, the College hosted two days of celebration, beginning with a welcome parade on Friday, Sept. 27.
At Saturday’s dedication, JC Lopez, vice president of student affairs, Feven Getachew `24, 2024 President’s Medalist, Anne Harris, 14th President of Grinnell College and Bernadine Douglas, vice president for development and alumni relations, addressed the audience of around 300 students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members. Renfrow Hall’s south tower, including the CEQ, was open to the audience for viewing.
The ceremony concluded with a performance from the Young, Gifted, and Black Gospel Choir (YGB) of “A Musical Tribute: Lift Every Voice And Sing.” As members finished singing, wildflowers soared through the air in celebration. Choir Director Barry Jones said, “Just to have the opportunity to be a part of something so special — you don’t get these moments all the time.”
Kyla Miller `25, Student Government Association (SGA) President and YGB member, said, “It meant the world to be able to be a part [of the dedication ceremony] and just celebrate our blackness, but also the blackness that has been represented throughout the campus.”
After further activities, which included a concert, book reading and cemetery walk, dedication festivities concluded on the evening of the 28th with a historical walk retracing Renfrow Smith’s mile-long journey from the College’s campus to her family’s home.
Getachew highlighted the importance of Renfrow Smith’s walk to campus in her dedication speech. “Tuition was $275, for which she had to work multiple jobs, and for the necessity of walking two miles every day from her home at 411 First Avenue to the College and back, despite the unforgiving winter and the unbearable summer of Grinnell,” she said.
Team Renfrow, a research-focused group of students, faculty, staff and alumni, worked collectively over the course of three years to formally recognize the legacy of the Renfrow family and historical contributions of Black Grinnellians. Their work led to the significant milestone of the hall’s dedication ceremony.
Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, professor and Louise R. Noun chair of gender, women’s and sexuality studies, formed Team Renfrow during the summer of 2021. When Beauboeuf-Lafontant arrived to the College in 2019, Renfrow Smith was known as the first Black alumna of the College, a biography that Beauboeuf-Lafontant described as “flattened.”
Dr. Irma McClaurin `73 said she was not aware of Renfrow Smith when she was a student at the college. “While we were told about the history of the college being founded around the social gospel, they did not tell us that J.B. Grinnell was an abolitionist, they did not tell us that Grinnell was on the Underground Railroad,” she said.
“Had I known that, I might have looked on this town differently, you know, I would have had a different experience, because we always felt that we were intruders, so we would sort of go in town and come out of town real quick because we didn’t feel we belonged.”
Beauboeuf-Lafontant said that she immediately wanted to learn more about Renfrow Smith’s family history and experience at Grinnell beyond her status as the first Black woman graduate.
“If she’s a first, we can’t just write her off as a first, as often happens for people of color,” she said. “There’s a whole story, and there’s a whole network, and the term that I use is that she’s a groundbreaker.”
Getachew, the first member of Team Renfrow, began working with Beauboeuf-Lafontant during the summer of 2021. Getachew spoke on Renfrow Smith’s influence on her time at Grinnell. “She made an impact for me to also connect with the town and the history of the town, and to feel like I belong here,” she said.
Getachew also emphasized the importance of educating others about Renfrow Smith and her legacy. “Everybody needs to know who she is when they are in Grinnell, so they know the kind of legacy and the kind of life she lived in Grinnell.”
Both Valeriya Woodard `25, a member of Team Renfrow, and McClaurin said that Renfrow Hall will have a lasting impact on the College’s history. “This is permanent. She will be remembered for ever and ever and ever,” Woodard said.
Libby Eggert `25 said that when she got involved with Team Renfrow, she could not have imagined all it was able to turn into. “I didn’t expect it to be such wide community engagement, and then today, to actually see the hall open and walk through it, it just didn’t feel real to see. It’s awesome,” she said.
President Harris spoke to current students who are learning about Renfrow Smith, encouraging them to be inspired by her and be aware of the legacy they too leave behind. Harris said, “People are going to walk and live and think and learn in that space. It is a framework for life.”
“We operated in a sense that we were living in a white town that didn’t want us…this building is a concrete symbol of making history, correcting history, making it right, making it factual of what was and what is, as opposed to the omissions that happened during that time,” McClaurin said.
“This has never been just about a building. It’s about our history. It’s about this person, her long history here, and it’s about starting a new chapter,” Beauboeuf-Lafontant said.
Friday’s welcome parade began at Davis Elementary School, where students lined the streets waving plastic clappers and handmade banners. Renfrow Smith greeted onlookers from a red convertible driven by Jim White, at-large City Council member.
“The kids were chanting, ‘Let’s go Edith!’ It was just so sweet,” said Sarah Smith, director of Outreach Programming and Events at the College and one of the parade’s organizers. “It was fun to see the high schoolers and middle schoolers also get involved, because the more those kids can get involved, the more we hear her name and understand and remember her story.”
On Friday evening, campus and community members gathered for a dessert and dance reception in Central Park, where Iowa City-based funk band FunkDaddies performed to end the first day of celebration.
Attendee Gwendolyn Moore `74, a founding member of the Young, Gifted, and Black Gospel Choir, had flown in from St. Louis, MO for the weekend. She said was looking most forward to the dedication ceremony itself. “I was here for our 50th reunion but I didn’t get to meet her, so hopefully this time,” Moore said.
Following the dedication ceremony, members of Team Renfrow, including Monique McLay Shore `90, Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Woodard and Hemlock Stanier `25 led a guided tour of Hazelwood Cemetery, highlighting the presence of Grinnell’s Black residents and members of the Renfrow family.
“Telling someone’s story to their face – I was tearing up. Every single cemetery walk has been incredibly meaningful, but this one feels weightier,” said Stanier.
“It’s so exciting to see this town honoring this part of its history in a way that doesn’t often get honored,” said Lesley Wright, former director of the Grinnell College Museum of Art. “African American members of this community, including the Renfrows, were not as well-respected as they should have been,” she said.
“They’ve [Black residents of Grinnell] been completely hidden and unrecognized for so long,” said Shore. “There’s the perception that Grinnell has always been a really white town.”
Shore added that the cemetery walk and all of the weekend’s activities brought the work of Team Renfrow to life. “To be able to look out and know some of these folks are related to these stories that we’re telling is so incredible,” she said.
Upon speaking with Renfrow Smith prior to the dedication, Patricia Swansey `74 thanked her for her sacrifice as the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell. “And she said, ‘Oh honey, it’s not sacrificing. It’s just life,’” Swansey said. “But I think she endured a lot being the first … during the time period that she was in.”
“Many of the same issues are in place now that were present then, but I’m happy that she is being honored in this way,” she said.
Monique Shore • Sep 30, 2024 at 2:58 pm
Thank you , S&B staff, for your excellent coverage of this historic event! Your photos and writing in all of the articles are outstanding and very much appreciated. Well done. Monique Shore ’90