The Edith Renfrow Smith '37 Student Art Gallery

At her 70th class reunion in June 2007, the first of two campus spaces was named for Edith Renfrow Smith.  Retired Chicago public school teacher and community college history faculty member Alphanette White Price ’57 led the dedication of the Edith Renfrow Smith '37 Student Art Gallery in the Joe Rosenfield Student Center.  When Price was a little girl in the late 1930s, her mother worked with Mrs. Renfrow Smith at the YWCA.  It was this connection that introduced Price to Grinnell College.  In her remarks, Mrs. Price expressed the gratitude of many assembled when she stated that Mrs. Renfrow Smith’s groundbreaking at the first Black alumna has “enable[ed] us to have had ‘The Grinnell Experience.’"   

Trustee and alumnus Henry Wingate ’69 spoke directly to the labor of being a first:

Grinnell overall was kind to me, as I am sure overall it was to you.  Yet, I know that when you ‘pioneer,’ you encounter islands of prejudice and pockets of resistance.  Insensitive words or names without ownership are hurled your direction.  Snarled glances may signify disdain, disapproval and miscreants may erect barriers to frustrate the pioneering purpose.  Yet, the resilient ‘pioneer’ marches on, as you did, and creates a legacy for those to follow, as you so nobly did.”