Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
‘A model life’
KU HONORS ITS FIRST BLACK GRADUATE WITH PRESIDENT'S MEDAL
Becoming a trailblazer was never something that was on Bessie Reese Crenshaw’s mind; she wasn’t trying to break down barriers.
She simply wanted an education.
“I just wanted to go to school,” the 93-year-old Reading native explained. “I wanted to be a teacher.”
Although it wasn’t her intent, by pursuing her dream Reese Crenshaw did, in fact, become a pioneer.
When she enrolled at what was then known as Kutztown State Teachers’ College in the fall of 1946, she was the school’s only Black student. And four years later, she would become Kutztown’s first Black graduate.
Reese Crenshaw, who now lives in Maryland, was recently awarded the Kutztown University President’s Medal in recognition of her seminal accomplishment.
“Despite many challenges and even injustices in her life, she persevered and led a model life spent serving others,” Kutztown President Dr. Kenneth S. Hawkinson said. “She greatly honors us by being willing to accept this medal and allowing Kutztown University to recognize her incredible courage, resolve and compassion.
“It is essential that her amazing story be told, remembered and serve as an inspiration to our students and all those in our community.”
An early love of learning
Education was always a big part of Reese Crenshaw’s life.
Her father passed away when she was young, which meant she and her three siblings — an older and younger brother and a younger sister — were raised in Reading by a single mother. And Bessie Reese made sure her kids would never shy away from a challenge.
“My mother brought us up to work,” Reese Crenshaw said. “She taught us that if you work you can achieve your goals.”
Bessie Reese also stressed the importance of education to her children. While she spent much of her time working to support her family, she always managed to find time to expose them to educational opportunities.
“She would take us to the library, the museum — places where you could see that education was something she believed in,” Reese Crenshaw said.
Reese Crenshaw said she quickly took to her mother’s lessons. And when she and her siblings would play at home, they often would play school with her leading the imaginary classroom.
“That was the start of my dream, of having a goal to be a teacher,” she said. “I like school, I liked learning.”
Pursuing a dream
Reese Crenshaw knew that in order to move from a make-believe classroom teaching her siblings to a real one instructing actual students, she needed to go to college.
How she was going to accomplish that wasn’t so clear.
“At the time, I didn’t have any money,” she said. “I meditated on that a lot, thinking about how am I going to get to school without any money.”
Luckily, she found help. J.F. Goodwin was a local, Black physician who in 1936 started a scholarship program to help Black students realize their potential.
Reese Crenshaw earned one of his scholarships, and between that and money she would make working as a governess, she had enough to pay for school.
The next step was picking where she would attend classes. Because of her job, Reese Crenshaw needed to find a place where she could commute from her Reading home.
“I was looking for the closest school where I could go to become a teacher, and Kutztown was the only one I could think of,” she said. “I had never been there, but I had heard of it.”
When Reese Crenshaw arrived on campus to sign up for her courses, she didn’t realize that she was the only Black student doing so.
“I wasn’t aware of it,” she said. “I was sort of shocked when I arrived there, I looked around and I didn’t see any African American students. But I didn’t think too much of it, I thought that maybe they just weren’t there yet.
“I wasn’t even thinking about the idea I might be the only African American; it didn’t even cross my mind.”
Eventually, Reese Crenshaw came to the realization that she was the only Black student at Kutztown. But, she said, that didn’t have much of an im