The month of February is known for many things, it’s Valentine’s Day month, FebruANY at Subway (of course), worst month for snow, and most importantly Black History Month. When we look around our campus we might not see as much diversity compared to other universities across America, but UNH highly celebrates its diversity and also has its own history of diversity. But the person who was the first to break barriers and make racial history at UNH was Elizabeth Virgil. Virgil, who graduated in 1926, was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics. The commencement was not celebrated as huge mark in UNH history as end of segregation, but rather, done quietly and uneventfully.
Growing up, it was only a dream for Virgil to go to college. Her mother was a housekeeper for Mrs. Mary Wood, a civil activist in Portsmouth, NH. Mrs. Wood noticed Elizabeth’s desire to go to college and knew she was smart. Mrs. Wood took it upon herself to help Elizabeth win scholarships to help her go to college. It took a lot of courage to be the only black female in an all-white school.
After graduation, Virgil looked into the education field. It would be 40 years until New Hampshire allowed black teachers to teach in their schools, so Virgil moved down south to teach in segregated schools. She taught in Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute in Petersburg and later in Bowie Normal School in Maryland. Virgil returned to New Hampshire in the late 1940’s to take care of her sick mother but realized she still was not allowed to teach in the schools. She worked many small jobs in Portsmouth, from the Naval Shipyard as a typist to teaching Sunday school at the People’s Baptist Church.
Finally in 1951 Virgil received a position at UNH as a secretary at the soil conservatory department; she worked there for 22 years and finally retired in 1973. At the end of her career, Virgil established a scholarship in memory of her mother, it is called the “Alberta Curry Virgil Scholarship”. She stated that, “I had opportunities offered to me that I never dreamed possible,” and the scholarship offers assistance to needy undergraduates and is for “anybody who wants it”.
Virgil died in 1991. Her courage is now always celebrated and remembered at UNH. In the entrance floor of Dimond library there is a portrait of Elizabeth in an elegant pink dress with reading glasses in one hand and sheet music on the other. Many of us pass by the picture every day and maybe we have never noticed the significance of the portrait. But if we look closer and read the plaque below the portrait frame it reads, “First African-American woman to be graduated from UNH.”