Triumphs of Edith Renfrow Smith ’37 celebrated at art gallery rededication
November 15, 2021 — While doing archival research about Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, Feven Getachew ’24 became captivated by Smith’s extraordinary optimism and the endless love she preached for Grinnell despite the adversities she endured.
The admiration grew further when Getachew met Smith, the College’s first Black alumna and the oldest living Grinnell graduate at age 107.
“Her sincere welcome and delightful smile warmed my heart,” Getachew says about their two visits last summer at Bethany Retirement Community in Chicago where Smith lives. “She shared with me and Dr. B [Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Louise R. Noun Chair in Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies] that her mother ensured that all her children would attend college and receive a degree. She said, ‘my mama told me, no one is better than you.’ I remember walking out of her apartment and saying, ‘I am disappointed I only knew her name before coming to Grinnell.’”
Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, left, Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, President Anne F. Harris, and Feven Getachew ’24 take a group photo Oct. 28 at the Edith Renfrow Smith ’37 Student Art Gallery rededication.
Inspired by Smith’s accomplishments and contributions to her communities, Getachew aspired to give her peers an opportunity to know her better. For this reason, she organized the True Grinnellian exhibition featuring photos and information about Smith’s life and legacy. The exhibit was on display from Oct. 25 to Nov. 6 in the Edith Renfrow Smith ’37 Student Art Gallery on the first floor of the Joe Rosenfield ’25 Center.
With Edith Renfrow Smith and her daughter, Alice Frances Smith, in attendance, an art gallery rededication was held on Oct. 28.
“Although you tell us that attending Grinnell was just following your dream, we all know and celebrate you for paving a way where none existed,” Beauboeuf-Lafontant said at the rededication. “You are the first, and you have made it possible for so many others to imagine themselves here.”
In June 2007, at Smith’s 70th class reunion, the first of two campus spaces were named for her. The Edith Renfrow Smith ’37 Student Art Gallery was the culmination of an effort led by alumna and retired Chicago public school teacher, the late Alphanette White Price ’57, who was a girl when her mother worked with Smith at the YWCA in the late 1930s.
Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, the College’s first Black alumna and the oldest living Grinnell graduate, smiles for a portrait photo in the art gallery.
Smith also is the namesake of the Edith Renfrow Smith Black Women’s Library in the Conney M. Kimbo Black Cultural Center. The library opened in April 2019 and was spearheaded by Rayyon Robinson ’19. A month later Smith received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Grinnell College at the 2019 Commencement ceremony.
The late October visit was Smith’s first trip back to Grinnell since 2019. In addition to the art gallery event, Smith met with middle and high school students and had a chance to converse with College students, staff, and faculty members.
An international student from Ethiopia, Getachew was searching earlier this year for Black
Grinnellians who could share their experiences of being people of color in a predominantly white institution. Getachew asked Beauboeuf-Lafontant about research opportunities; she suggested they do archival research about Smith.
They undertook a project titled, “First among us: The undergraduate experience of Edith Renfrow Smith ’37.” Monique Shore ’90, systems administrator at the Drake Community Library, helped arrange for Beauboeuf-Lafontant and Getachew to meet Smith, so the project shifted to oral history and recognition.
Two attendees examine the True Grinnellian exhibition featuring photos and information about Smith’s life and legacy.
Beauboeuf-Lafontant worked with Tierney Steelberg, digital liberal arts specialist at the College’s Digital Liberal Arts Collaborative, to write and design a new website about Smith. The site includes detailed anecdotes and photos about Smith’s childhood in Grinnell, her time as a College student, her career and role in recruiting Black students, and her continued interaction with the College over the years.
In addition, Getachew wrote an article in Grinnell Magazine about her research, authored text for a revised plaque in the art gallery, and put together a 4-minute video she screened with incoming international students earlier this semester.
“We were at the end of a three-hour visit with the Smiths, when Feven made a vow – to hold an exhibition so that others on campus would know about Mrs. Smith,” Beauboeuf-Lafontant said at the rededication. “Her voice was soft, but her conviction was palpable. And here we are, surrounded by your labors that emerged from your deep connection with Mrs. Smith. You and Mrs. Smith are kindred spirits, paving ways for others, and warming the space around you with your attention to detail, graciousness, and tenacity.”
— by Jeremy Shapiro