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"UI alumna makes history," September 27, 1996

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@ Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa)

Cassell, Jennifer

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Photocopy only; Archives does not hold original. Contact the University Archives at the University of Iowa: http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/contact/ Scanned with Ricoh Aficio 2335 scanner at 600 ppi, 8-bit grayscale. Archival tiff available. Friday. September 27, 1996 - The Daily lowan - SESQUICENTENNlAL - 9 UI HAS HISTORY OFDIVERSITY UI alumna makes history A racially discriminatory policy in the South in the 1940s and '50s forced UI alumna Jewel Limar Prestage to pursue her post-graduate education at the UI. That same discrimination, though, brought distinction to the UI when Prestage became the first African-American woman in the country to earn a doctorate degree in political science. Prestage came to the UI in 1951 after gradu¬ ating with a degree in political science from Southern University in Louisiana, a tradition¬ ally African-American college. Louisiana law didn't allow African-Americans to |)ursue post- giaduate degrees, but they did provide aid for those who studied outside of the state, she said. With a $375-per-semester allowance and the advice of Dr. Rodney Higgins, who was then the chairperson of social sciences at Southern University, Prestage came to Iowa City. Despite some moments of racial tension and discrimination, Prestage said the faculty at the UI allowed her to further her education in a timely and efficient manner -^ she earned her master's in just a year, and her doctorate two years later in 1954. 'There were no reasons for me to draw racial or sexual lines," she said. "Iowa taught me a lot, coming from a traditionally black...
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University of Iowa. Libraries. University Archives (host institution)
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Daily Iowan (Iowa City, Iowa)