Document Type

Honors Paper

Advisor

Taylor Desloge

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

The stories of domestic labor at this institution demand a reassessment of the history of the College, its relationship with the city of New London, and the life of the College’s first Black graduate. While Connecticut College was founded explicitly to offer women in the state of Connecticut a chance at a higher education, the College’s progressive mission was tempered from the start by its elitist ambitions and its reliance on the hierarchies of race, class and gender that shaped both American education and labor at the dawn of the 20th century. From its earliest days, the College made an effort to attract a predominately white elite student body at the expense of local working-class students. By establishing itself as an elite white space Connecticut College sought to differentiate students from cleaning staff in dormitories not only through class, but by explicitly hiring Black couples to live on campus and perform the labor students were not expected to do themselves. This created a unique environment where an employee’s labor, love and relationships, and home life fell under the surveillance and control of a white supervisor. This reality impacted, but did not define, the lives of the first Black employees at the College who continued to make community both within and outside College walls. Growing up as a Black working-class woman in New London, Lois Taylor ’31 also straddled two worlds during her time at Connecticut College. Commuting from home, she inhabited both white spaces on campus as the College’s first Black graduate and supported her local Black community. Her time at Connecticut College uniquely allows us to recognize the critical differences that marked the Black student experience from that of a Black employee. However, like those who worked at the College, Lois Taylor was not defined by this institution. She defined her own life and wrote her own story.

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The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the author.