Univ. of Ill. to name new dorm for 1st Black woman graduate
- Details
- Category: Chicago
- Published on Friday, 25 January 2013 16:04
- Written by The Chicago Defender
- Hits: 63
The University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign campus will have a new residence hall next fall named for the first African-American woman to graduate from the school.
The board made the decision Thursday to name the new residence hall in honor of Maudelle Tanner Brown Bousfield. The dorm is six stories tall and will house 485 students.
Bousfield graduated with honors from the university in 1906 and went on to teach high school math in Baltimore, Chicago and East St. Louis. She also became the first African-American principal in Chicago's public schools in 1928.
She retired in 1950 and died in 1971.
