150 Years of Excellence
Among Thousands of Morehouse Graduates are 33 Morehouse
Women The late 1920s through the early 1930s were a rough period for schools like Morehouse College. The Great Depression made it tough, nearly impossible, for average Americans to attend college—especially black men looking to attend a private historically black college. Most men had to focus on earning money to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads as U.S. unemployment soared. During that time, Morehouse’s enrollment plummeted until an unlikely source saved the College from an enrollment drought–—women. Among the thousands of Morehouse Men who have graduated from the College, 33 “Morehouse Women” are full graduates of Morehouse College. Most took night courses. The College allowed public school teachers to take extension classes in the evenings, with many going on to earn their degrees from Morehouse. But some pioneering women, including the late educator Mary Cecelia Robinson Spivey, attended classes with the guys during the day. M
Mary Cecelia Robinson Spivey ’33
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Everybody was so nice,” she said. “I had no problems.” Spivey was treated the same as her male classmates on campus. A professor once asked the class a question that she could answer and the guys couldn’t. “I said, ‘Oh, I got this,’” Spivey recalled. “[The instructor said] ‘Men, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You let this lady come in here and just run rings around you.’ They couldn’t do anything but look at me and shake their heads.”
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morehouse magazine • 150 years of excellence
Lottie Louise Bailey Harris ’33
5 Things to Know About Morehouse Women 1. W omen have always taken classes at Morehouse. Atlanta University Center students take courses at Morehouse, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University—courses not offered on their own campuses. But between 1929 and 1933, some women were admitted as Morehouse students. 2. Spivey entered Morehouse at 15. 3. S pivey was the last female admitted to Morehouse and the last Morehouse Woman to graduate with a degree. She went on to have a distinguished career as a teacher and college professor. 4. S pivey reportedly lost her Morehouse diploma in a theft. She was presented with a replacement diploma during the 2011 Commencement ceremony. 5. Spivey died in 2014 at 99.