Black Lives Matter -- Part The Gazillionth

 

Clara B. Williams

Clara Belle Drisdale, the first African American to graduate from New Mexico State University, was born to sharecroppers Isaac and Carrie Melinda Moppins Drisdale in LaGrange, Texas on October 29, 1885. She was first educated in a one room country school house near LaGrange but in 1901 she entered Prairie View Normal and Independent College (now Prairie View Agricultural and Mechanical University), in Prairie View, Texas. Drisdale graduated from the institution with a certificate in domestic arts, as its valedictorian in 1905. 

After graduation, she was the head of the institution’s sewing department before moving to El Paso, Texas. In 1917, Drisdale married Jasper Williams, a pharmacist in El Paso. Together they ran a drug store and became parents of three sons, Jasper, James, and Charles. 

 In 1924, the Williams family left Texas and moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico where they homesteaded 640 acres of land. Williams continued her education by taking extension and correspondence courses from the University of Chicago, but in 1928 she enrolled at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts (now New Mexico State University). 

While Williams was a student she was segregated from other students because of her race and often had to listen to lectures outside of classrooms and take notes while standing. 

 In 1937, at age 51, Williams became the first African American to graduate from New Mexico State University. She received a bachelor of arts in English but was not allowed to participate in her class’s graduation. Despite her humiliation, Williams continued her education at the university by taking twelve hours of graduate work. Her three sons also graduated from the university and all later became physicians.

SEE ALSO EPHRAIM STURRUP