艾菲·斯特劳德·弗雷泽31岁
“我有两个专业:英语和教育. I had planned to be an English teacher, for which I was qualified. 我的英语成绩都很高. 我不仅不被允许做实践教学. I was even prevented from going into a classroom and observing a lesson being taught. My being prevented from taking practice teaching also prevented me from having a decent retirement income."
——艾菲·斯特劳德·弗雷泽
斯特劳德家族的第四个兄弟, 比她弟弟道尔菲斯小两岁, 艾菲本身就是一名顶尖学者. From a young age, she helped support herself and her family, working as a maid in a boardinghouse.
在小学时，她的成绩一直名列前茅, 中间, 高中, she won awards in elocution and city- and state-wide prizes for her work in chemistry, 包括美国化学学会的第二名. 她高中的化学成绩是aa +, 这可能是科罗拉多斯普林斯高中的第一次, 现在的威廉?. 帕尔默高中.
即使她有学业上的希望和潜力, Stroud was subjected to great racial abuse and the systemic oppression toward people of color. When she received her high school diploma, nobody marched alongside her - she was completely alone.
1927年秋天, Stroud began at 科罗拉多大学 - able to attend due to the Sachs Foundation, 这是她每个学期的学费吗, 只要她成绩好就行. 亨利·萨克斯, 当地的商人和企业家, 在高中时就注意到了斯特劳德的潜力, and told her that if she kept her grades up and worked to support herself, 他会支付她的学费.
斯特劳德以B的成绩毕业.A. 1931年，她是第三位这样做的黑人女性. 她的成绩比平均绩点低了不到一个百分点 以优等成绩毕业者 status, and - despite this disappointment - looked forward to a shining future. She wanted to teach, to offer opportunities to students like herself.
然而，没有教师的工作. 尽管有学位和教师证书, 斯特劳德只找到了打扫大学校长房子的工作. 再一次, 亨利·萨克斯介入了, funding her second bachelor's degree at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), 这一次是在图书馆学——一个相对较新的领域. Putting her degree to use, Stroud moved to New York City and worked at the 135th 哈莱姆区的街道图书馆, 与黑人艺术家会面并合作, 作家, 以及哈莱姆社区成员，包括W.E.B. 杜波依斯，兰斯顿休斯，Countee Cullen和Claude McKay.
She served the New York public school system as a teacher of librarianship, and eventually became the supervisor for all public school libraries across the entire city. 除了她的教学和图书馆工作, Stroud was a community activist who chaired the cleanup project of a six-block mall area in Riverdale-on-Hudson - work that earned her first place in the "Citizens of New York" awards for her efforts to beautify a public place.
斯特劳德于1973年从图书馆退休, 并于1978年回到科罗拉多斯普林斯, 她的家人还留在那里吗. She continued to volunteer as a librarian for the First Presbyterian Church until her death in 1994.
胡安妮塔·马丁的回忆录，艾菲·斯特劳德的侄女
When I accompanied Effie to her 50th year reunion of her 科罗拉多大学 class, she was just as emotionally distraught and resentful as she must have been when denied election to Phi Beta Kappa 50 years earlier. Her grades warranted the election; however, a white male classmate told her that the committee spent many hours trying to find justification for her denial. They finally arrived at the spurious reason that Effie had not been a member of any extra-curricular groups, 其中大多数学校系统性地拒绝招收黑人学生. 摘自约翰·霍利的书, The Invisible People of the Pikes Peak Region: "Although Effie and Dolphus were both top scholars at CC, 以优异成绩毕业, they felt isolated from the other students as they were excluded from most extracurricular activities. Effie could not participate in physical education because CC students went to the Broadmoor Hotel for swimming and horseback riding and black people were not allowed to swim in the Broadmoor pool. Effie was enrolled in a teaching course but was not permitted to do observation or practice teaching in the local schools, 因为他们仍然拒绝任命黑人教师."
Effie was near tears at her reunion and appeared still to want the decision reversed. 与Dolphus相反, Effie did not seem to have enjoyed her experiences at 科罗拉多大学 and was bitter, 而不是超越. Because of her special abilities and talents, she expected more and never made peace with the past. 这不足为奇. The Holley book reads: "A high achiever who always studied diligently, Effie Stroud was at the top of her class in her junior year and sixth or seventh in her senior year. She won an award in elocution and wrote an essay on chemistry during her senior year which won first place in Colorado Springs and second place in the state in a contest sponsored by the American Chemical Society. 她的化学成绩是aa +, probably the first time that grade was ever given at Colorado Springs High School.
Nevertheless, Effie was still subjected to the racial caste system. When she marched onto the stage at the new City Auditorium in 1927 to receive her diploma, 没有人在她旁边走。. She and several other students received scholarships to The 科罗拉多大学 but they were only for $50, 这比1927年的学费要少得多. The Sachs Foundation Scholarship arose from Effie's experience and supported her college education. This may have assuaged the pain of racism somewhat for Effie for a time; however, she left Colorado Springs for many years because of the indignities she suffered here. She went on to many accomplishments and a successful career as a chief librarian and teacher in New York.
我强烈建议你购买并阅读约翰·霍利的书, which contains a wealth of information about many local families as well as the Strouds. 文物可以在拓荒者博物馆找到. It is unfortunate that most Black people must see their live through the prism of racism, 但这就是我们所受的生活.
胡安妮塔·马丁