Paying Tribute to a
TRAILBLAZER: Agnes Scott Celebrates the Legacy and 50th Anniversary of the Graduation of Its First Black Graduate, Edna Lowe Swift ’71 By Echo Montgomery Garrett
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his spring marked the 50th anniversary of the graduation of Edna Lowe Swift ’71, whose legacy looms large as the first Black graduate of Agnes Scott College. Being the first of anything bears a heavy weight of responsibility and attention, which Swift has carried with grace throughout the years. A well-known and respected member of the community, she has made an impact seen and felt by all who have followed her and never more strongly so than now as the college sets its course toward justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Racial unrest was boiling over in America during what became known as the “long, hot summer of 1967,” with riots and protests erupting in Black communities in major cities across the country in response to racial discrimination, unemployment, poverty, crime, housing inequities and police brutality. Atlanta was one of those cities and had always reflected a long, complex history — one of segregation and racial violence and one of Black progress and excellence. That summer, the world was full of turmoil, but it was also
full of possibility as the promise of change was in the air, and it was in this climate that Swift faced a tough decision as a high school senior. Swift’s outstanding performance at Booker T. Washington High School — Georgia’s first public high school for Black students and the alma mater of many influential Black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. — garnered her acceptance at both Spelman College and Morris Brown College, where her closest friends were going. For Swift, it would make sense for her to attend one of these distinguished institutions of the Atlanta University Center, a consortium of leading private historically Black colleges and universities. Still, she had also been offered a substantial scholarship to attend Agnes Scott. Just two years earlier, Gay Johnson McDougall ’69x, H ’10, whose mother taught at Swift’s storied high school and who was from her Southwest Atlanta neighborhood, had integrated the prestigious women’s college in 1965. The courageous young woman was undeterred by the fact that Agnes Scott had lagged years behind the state’s public and most
of its private colleges in accepting Black students and that McDougall had left after one year due to her negative experiences on campus. Swift was fascinated with other cultures and was adventurous, and although Decatur was only 10 miles from her home, it felt like a world away. Her mother and grandmother both encouraged her to enroll in the newly integrated college, where she planned to major in Spanish. She arrived on campus in the fall of 1967 as a day student, which required her to take four buses each day. Students were polite to Swift, but as one of two Black students for the first two years, she did not feel welcomed into campus life. However, she befriended other day students and forged relationships with them as they studied and relaxed together in the day students’ lounge, The Hub and other campus spaces. Between classes she worked in the dormitory department as a clerical aide to satisfy the workstudy requirement with many Black staff members who were always encouraging and kind. Despite her loneliness, Swift never complained and was determined to graduate. Coming of age during the civil
