Roots of Spelman, the oldest historically black women's college.(MOVEABLE TYPE)

In 1996, Money magazine ranked Spelman College GA the best women's college, best historically black college and the #7 college overall in the United States. Foundations for excellence go far back at the oldest historically black college for women. Yolanda L. Watson and Dr. Sheila T. Gregory review its first 72 years in Daring to Educate: The Legacy of the Early Spelman College Presidents.

Curriculum and culture at Spelman reflected societal norms and the convictions of its first four presidents, white women from the Northeast with a missionary zeal for expanding women's opportunities. As President Emerita Johnnetta Cole wrote in her foreword, "Spelman College stood boldly for the proposition that education is integral and inseparable from social change."

Founders Packard and Giles

After the Civil War, the rush to educate newly freed slaves concentrated on men. Sophia Packard and Harriet Giles, northern white teachers and missionaries, were appalled by the lack of religious, practical and intellectual training for former slaves who were women. They founded the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary in a church basement in 1881 to train school teachers and missionaries.

While their emphasis on morals and domestic skills may seem condescending today, historical context adds perspective. A graduate's employment opportunities were limited; skills for teaching and domestic work boosted her chance of a job. Morals and home economics were educational staples for white women too.

Packard and Giles intended Spelman's benefits to "up-lift the race." That meant preparing mothers to bring up the next generation, teachers to educate them and missionaries to spread the gospel in Africa.

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