The Little School Under the "L"

1st African American Graduates

Location: 3rd row of pillars north of Belden, on the sidewalk.

Installed:  Aug.  2017

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       DePaul University from its very start always claimed diversity in its students as an asset.  Over the years diversity had to be reinvented, but always for the needs of marginalized groups that attended DePaul.  Diversity became quietly visible in the school year of 1943-44, when Marion Amoureaux and Rose Vaughan became our first African American graduates.  Both receiving Bachelor of Science degrees in Education at that time. 

       In the composition, the figure of Rose Vaughan (standing), was a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.  While Marion Amoureux worked at ‘The Chicago Defender’. The leading African American publication in the country before the Civil Rights struggle. 

      This composition, like the McCabe pillar and the D-men pillar, features the use of crimson curtains.  These curtains are a visual device that ‘reveals’ what is really important in a formal sense.  And in this case allows the viewer to see the figures in a stage presence.  On the reverse side of this pillar, Rachel Eubanks designed the medallion that commemorates this event.