Nearly 30 years after publishing a memoir about her Alabama upbringing, Deborah E. McDowell still remembers the explanation one of her former teachers gave during a hometown celebration in her honor.
McDowell, the Alice Griffin Professor of English at the University of Virginia, had long carried a childhood grudge after being steered away from home economics classes. At the reception, the teacher finally explained why.
“We had other plans for you,” she told McDowell.
McDowell, third from left, reunites with some of her former K-12 teachers during a return visit to Alabama after publishing her family history in 1997. (Contributed photo)
That expectation – that education could open doors beyond the limitations of segregation-era Alabama – shaped McDowell’s path from Bessemer, Alabama, to becoming one of the nation’s leading scholars of African American literature and culture. After 39 years at UVA, colleagues said her legacy will continue to shape the University.
“Professor McDowell has created the conditions of formation for generations of students and colleagues who carry her influence forward,” Christa Acampora, dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, said. “They leave here with a way of thinking and a sense of responsibility that stays.”
Robert Trent Vinson, director of UVA’s Carter G. Woodson Institute for African American and African Studies, said McDowell’s “strategic vision, passionate commitment and sheer force of will” helped make the institute internationally renowned.
