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Untold Narratives: Discrimination, Self-Determination, and Change at the University of Richmond
Item 8 of 12
This is a contributing entry for Untold Narratives: Discrimination, Self-Determination, and Change at the University of Richmond and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.
The Jenkins Greek Theatre and North Court have been home to performances that emphasize whiteness and traditional Eurocentric ideas of feminine beauty. Despite the existence of these racist and sexist performances, these sites also offer insight into the stories of several of the first African American women students at the University of Richmond.

Pocahontas Themed May Day Performance: Collegian Article from 1957 (Source: The Collegian)

Pocahontas Themed May Day Performance: Collegian Article from 1957
(Source: The Collegian)

Yearbook photo of Isabelle Thomas as a senior from 1972 (Source: Race & Racism Project)

Yearbook photo of Isabelle Thomas as a senior from 1972
(Source: Race & Racism Project)

Yearbook photo of Madeith Malone as a senior from 1972 (Source: Race & Racism Project)

Yearbook photo of Madeith Malone as a senior from 1972 
(Source: Race & Racism Project)

Westhampton Glee Club in the Greek Theatre from 1969 (Source: Race & Racism Project)

Westhampton Glee Club in the Greek Theatre from 1969
(Source: Race & Racism Project)

UR Players Featuring Madeith Malone from 1972 (Source: Race & Racism Project)

UR Players Featuring Madeith Malone from 1972
(Source: Race & Racism Project)

Looking down over to your right is the grass staircase that leads to the Jenkins Greek Theatre. Named after Luther H. Jenkins, Richmond book manufacturer and trustee, the Greek Theatre has been home to a variety of performances since its creation in 1929. Each of these performances, from beauty pageants to May Day festivals, foregrounded whiteness. During the May Day festival, which persisted into the 1970s, students crowned a Westhampton college woman as a modern-day Pocahontas.1 May Day was a celebration of spring derived from Anglo-Saxon tradition and underwent a resurgence in the late 19th century as a way to introduce an alternative “wholesome play” to young people. The renewal of this tradition reached popularity on women’s college campuses, including U of R, in which “the children of wealthy families donned white outfits and danced traditional folk dances.”2 These performances allowed white students to come together and promote traditional gender roles and standards of Eurocentric beauty. 

While the Greek Theatre was home to such performances of racism and sexism, it was also the site where the University of Richmond’s first female African American students, Isabelle Sevilla Thomas and Madeith Malone, performed in the early 1970s. Thomas and Malone first enrolled at the University of Richmond in 1968. Thomas was a Russian Studies major who participated in the Westhampton Glee Club. Malone also was a member of the Westhampton Glee Club, and was the first Black woman to join UR Players, the University’s student-run theatre organization. These women broke barriers in the performing arts community. At the 50th Anniversary Commemoration in November 2018 honoring several of the first Black students at the University, Malone stated that her participation in the theatre program was one of the highlights of her time in college, where the focus of art and music was on talent rather than “superficial things like what you look like.”3

Both women spent much time in North Court, which is located directly next to the Jenkins Greek Theatre. North Court was the first building constructed on the Westhampton side of campus. While attending school in a majority white space, Thomas and Malone also performed in spaces that historically housed Blackface minstrel shows put on by Westhampton women in the decades before desegregation. Although now serving as a co-ed dorm in which students live and interact, many aspects of North Court’s history remain hidden, especially pertaining to the lives of Thomas and Malone. 

1 The Richmond Collegian, “Elizabeth Gill Chosen as Westhampton May Queen ,” Race & Racism at the University of Richmond, accessed December 1, 2018, https://memory.richmond.edu/items/show/66.
2 
Grant, Jordan. "May Day: America's Traditional, Radical, Complicated Holiday, Part 1." National Museum of American History. March 29, 2017. Accessed December 02, 2018. http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/may-day-americas-traditional-radical-complicated-holiday-part-1.
3 
Millerchip, Alice. "University Celebrates and Honors First Three African American Students 50 Years Later." The Collegian, November 5, 2018. https://www.thecollegianur.com/article/2018/11/university-celebrates-and-honors-first-three-african-american-students-50-years-later.