The Lemon Project & Branch Out

In both Hidden Figures and our interview today with the Legacy 3, the women were unafraid to embark on unfamiliar terrain. Regardless of whether something had been done before, the women refused to conceive such as a closed door, but rather as one that they would be the first to open. What does it mean to be the first? Certainly, there is a level of uncertainty and anxiety—as there is with any blank slate—but the women we have met–both in film and in person–also displayed how being the first is a path to empowerment. It’s about intentionally creating change yourself, and it also requires a degree of self confidence, which the Legacy 3 inspiringly embodies. As I’ve been thinking about the Legacy 3’s experience at the College, their general unawareness of the legacy they would create reminds me how being the first can also be natural. It needn’t be self-imposed. In fact, I would argue that the best legacies are the ones that one does not entirely know they are creating. Sometimes one must go through their personal journey to guide others through their own. The Legacy 3’s journey, though distinct and personal to the women, has taken a life of its own. We now celebrate the women’s achievements as a model for creating a new legacy at William & Mary, one that openly acknowledges the history of African Americans on campus and translates such recognition into active change. Though this process has proved time-consuming and unfinished, I feel as if we—as the current William & Mary community—are carrying the torch forward that the Legacy 3 first lit back in 1967. Now, we must use this flame as the guiding light to start difficult conversations and re-inform prevailing narratives. I’m proud to be a part of this mission.

Meeting Janet, Lynn, and Karen and being able to personally interview them today was an amazing experience for which I am very grateful. The most interesting and somewhat ironic part of the day for me was the fact that the three ladies kept mentioning several times throughout the interview that they weren’t special and repeatedly revealed their shock at our academic and social interest with their own experiences. For them, the whole year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the year that they had commenced their academic journey at William and Mary, was a very humbling experience because they believed that they were “just the same as [us] ” and they believed that they had a normal college experience despite obvious differences in obstacles faced and distinct impediments met between us and the Legacy 3. Working in my group and putting together the answers the three women gave us to the questions we had prepared allowed us to further explore the ideas of spaces and places as well as their stories and helped give a better understanding of the meaning of the ladies’ experiences at the college and its profound impact on further African American students to come.

Learning more about the Lemon Project throughout the day and the project on the “places and spaces” around campus allowed me to view the campus in a different manner and provided me with a new perspective that I don’t think I would have been able to see if it weren’t for the Lemon Project. This was especially true for me when I learned about the long history of slavery found on campus at William and Mary. It was shocking to see, as Ari pointed out, that the College had owned slaves for more years than it had not owned slaves. Creating interview questions for the Legacy 3, Janet, Karen and Karen also allowed me to think of the three women as more than just an idea, but rather actual human beings. It was almost surreal to think that they had lived, walked, and breathed in the same areas that we all have on the campus but had simultaneously faced drastically different obstacles that were inherently based on their race as well as some of the same, shared experiences that we have all had at the college. Seeing this idea also expressed through the movie, Hidden Figures, helped me gain a greater understanding of how badass these women are for not allowing any obstacle placed in front of them to stand in their way. These three women were, without even knowing it at the time, paving the way for future generations, not only for other students of color but for women as well.

I was very excited to learn more about the background information regarding The Lemon Project. The story about why Lemon was chosen as the face of the project and the struggles African Americans had to go through just to be accepted into the college was intriguing. The determination shown behind the woman who applied and was rejected multiple times before finally being accepted into William & Mary Law School was incredible. William and Mary has come far, but not too far. I can relate to their being predominantly black employees working lower rank jobs at the college while there are very few African American professors here. African American students still have need that encouragement to succeed at William & Mary.

It was amazing to actually meet all of them in person. After watching the interview, I felt like I already knew them. That is how relatable they were to us as students. We were able to go back in time through the stories they told. Using the information they told us, we can properly compare and contrast the similarities and differences at the college. They were so relatable, and it was a joy to be around them.

I saw Hidden Figures plenty of times before this trip, but the impact I got from watching the movie was the same. The movie is so inspirational and up-lifting. The actresses had so much patience and determination to succeed. It is motivational to every woman watching regardless of color. Being an African American woman comes with double oppression which we saw in the film. The white men were superior to the white women who were superior to the African American women. We got to watch the power differentials and really got visualize a watered down version of the interactions and obstacles that not only women had to face but African American women. It was the perfect selection for an all woman trip.

Just within today’s beginning of the project, there has been so much information and knowledge shared and the inspiration already streaming is immeasurable. We began today with an overview of the community rules and goals we hope to achieve which to me already gave me high hopes for what the group together can achieve, as everyone seems ready to share the safe space and contribute to in depth discussions surrounding the themes of this years project. We then delved into the Lemon Project as an organization, and there the amount of excitement, enthusiasm, and pure passion for the topic at hand from the leading graduate students only increased my personal excitement and passion about the topic. Then did we get to learn about the specifics of the theme we will be focusing on for this year’s project, which is: the rethinking of spaces on campus that are familar to us today by using primary sources from the Legacy Three to aid in the reconstructing of the relationship between African Americans and the College of William and Mary. This project comes at an opportune time, as in 2017 the College is also celebrating its 50th anniversary of the admittance of African Americans at the College, while in 2018 the College celebrates the admittance of women. Given that all the participants on the trip, the graduate students, and the Legacy Three are all women just gives an overall sense of empowerment that is so uplifting and exhilarating, or well to me at least. We then were able to watch an interview with Lynn, Karen, and Janet where we got to get a preview of their insights and experiences as students here, while being the first African American students as well. One of the most fascinating poins that I gained from the interview as a whole was just the amazement of how something that became so powerful and influential to so many generations later, was at the time so simple to the Legacy Three. For in their minds, they were only simply choosing to attend a university as students ready to learn. Then as we began to actually work towards that goal by separating into groups not only did I get to witness everyone else’s minds spurring with energy and interest but I too got to encounter random fascinating facts and plenty of points of interest that will aid in the efforts of completing the project. Topping off the day with the viewing of Hidden Figures was perfect as it tied together the themes of the project as well as overall empowerment to women and minority women everywhere in a delightful and heartening film. I already have high hopes and much excitement for what tomorrow brings, and I already know there is no way I could be disappointed considering the brilliant minds I get to work with on the project, as well as the strong and powerful women (aka Janet, Lynn, and Karen) that I will have the pleasure to meet and interview.

My first day at the Lemon Project was full of community, laughter, and new knowledge. We started the day creating rules and goals for the weekend, followed by learning about the actual project we are going to create. The first part of the day (and my favorite part of the day) was watching the interview of the Legacy 3 done by William and Mary libraries because I was struck by the humanity of their experiences at the college. Before they came, they were not aware that they were the first African American residential students at William and Mary, and from the stories they told, it seemed like that was never the main focus of their experience. Their freshman year was full of the same experiences and struggles as mine: learning to live away from home, making new friends, and adjusting to rigorous academics. It drove home the fact that we are all humans trying to survive and thrive in whatever situation life decides to put us in. Their situation was exceptional, though. I noticed this when all three women mentioned that they felt pressure to succeed and graduate because of their unique situation as the first African American residential students at the college. The thought was that they had to succeed to show the people who doubted them, and the people who may be in a similar situation, that it could be done. We all watched the video as a group, laughed at the same stories, and related to the same experiences, and I think this brought us together and inspired us to continue working to tell the story of these women and the spaces and places they occupied.

The second part of the day was spent brainstorming our projects and research. My group decided to focus on residential and study spaces, which I think will further this theme of relatability and community. The women lived in Jefferson Hall as freshman, which still serves as a freshman dorm today. They also spent hours and hours studying for classes, just as we do now. By studying the buildings they occupied, which we also occupy, and their experiences in them, we can contextualize their situation and experiences in order to further understand and relate to them. I am so excited to meet, interview, and learn even more from the women tomorrow, and to keep creating an awesome and supportive (and educational) community with my group members and leaders.

Following an intense and fascinating first day working on the Lemon Project, I find myself thinking about pioneers. In the interview that we saw, I was struck by the fact that none of the three women set out to be the first black student on campus. In fact, they were not aware of their status as the first black residential students until they arrived at W&M. Each of them applied to college, got in, and chose to attend this institution simply because they wanted an education. Just like the women of Hidden Figures, they had a goal and decided to achieve it. The fact that they were the first to do so was simply a byproduct of their determination. Although it seems obvious in retrospect, this was an interesting revelation for me. It also served as a reminder that those making history do not necessarily realize their own significance. I really enjoyed meeting Janet Brown Strafer, and I’m very excited to speak with all three women in person tomorrow.

Feeling like you have to prove something to someone or yourself weighs one down, but it can also fuel resiliency. During our first “meeting” with the Legacy 3, an oral history interview, the theme of persevering manifested in various forms. All three women mentioned forms of external pressure as a driving force to continue—external pressures in the form of pessimistic counselors, attention from the school newspaper, a predominantly white environment, or racist school administrators. At one point in the interview, these external pressures were referred to as a “burden” that the Legacy 3 had to carry in addition to navigating William & Mary’s rigorous academic life. While the women acknowledged that they were conscious of an extra sense of responsibility—to “represent” other African American scholars—they appeared to openly accept this additional task with a certain ease. Even now, when asked about their status as pioneers, the Legacy 3 almost shrug and respond—“we were just students going to college.” I found their grounded philosophy inspiring and telling of internal resiliency–one that does not require recognition to find meaning. The women preferred not dwell longer than necessary on exclusive circumstances—instead, they visualized discouragement and pressure as reasons to keep moving forward. The hurdles they encountered as both women and the first residential African American students became, in part, an anchor for staying and completing their education. As Karen voiced, their vision was to open William & Mary’s campus to more African American students who could proudly reimagine the African American presence on campus as scholars. I was intrigued with the Legacy 3’s ability to translate what one might conceive as insurmountable barriers into a meaningful internal momentum. I believe that the women have managed to prove themselves without loosing themselves to external influences, which is extremely commendable. They have, in short, reimagined pressure as purpose.