COLUMBUS, Miss.—Outside Callaway Hall on Mississippi University for Women’s campus sits a new historic land marker honoring the institution’s three founding women: Sallie Reneau, Olivia Hastings and Annie Coleman Peyton.
The university honored the women with a dedication and unveiled the historic marker on March 28 to celebrate Women’s History Month and 140 years of MUW.
Reneau was from Panola County, Miss., Peyton was from Hazlehurst, Miss., and Hastings was from Port Gibson, Miss. Before the Civil War ended in 1865, the women urged lawmakers to create a college for white women. But it took until 1884 for the Mississippi Legislature to pass the Martin Bill and create the Mississippi Industrial Institute and College for the Education of White Girls.
“During the 19th century, Sallie Reneau, Olivia Hastings, Annie Coleman Peyton challenged our community, state and nation to live up to one of our most basic truths: That women and men are created equally and deserve equal opportunities,” Mississippi School for Math and Science African American history teacher Chuck Yarborough said on March 28 at the unveiling ceremony.
The university would not accept Black women until 1966 and only began accepting men in 1982.
‘Mississippi Needed More Women to be Breadwinners’
In August 2021, Chuck Yarborough noted that the historic land marker about MUW itself on campus did not name any women. In fact, Lowndes County only had four markers that named women and six that named Black people. He then started a program with his students called MoreStory Monuments to tell the stories of women and Black people in Lowndes County by dedicating new historic land markers.
As part of the program, MUW dedicated the historic land marker to Sallie Reneau, Olivia Hastings and Annie Coleman Peyton. MUW history professor Erin Kempker guided her students as they researched the founding women and passed the research to MUW gallery director Beverly Joyce’s museum studies class to curate the “Trailblazing Women: Our Legacy” exhibition. It is the first installment in a series of galleries that will honor the women of MUW.
“The exhibition not only traces the efforts of each founder
Read original article by clicking here.