Education
Nash first went to Howard University in Washington, D.C., then transferred south to Fisk University, a small predominantly African-American college similar to Howard, in Nashville, TN. Although Nash had experienced discrimination in Chicago, she her first experience with widespread segregation. She attended many workshops at Fisk University with John Lewis. A turning point for Nash came during a visit to the State Fair, when she saw bathrooms marked "White" or "Colored." Nash couldn't believe it, coming from a desegregated city in the north; she was determined to see a change. Looking back at this important time in her life, Nash said to Fred Powledge in an interview: "My stepfather was a waiter on the railroads and he had to make trips to the South. He would tell about the segregated facilities down there. I believed him and listened to the stories, but I think it was an intellectual understanding. But when I actually got down there and saw signs, it really hit me that I wasn't, quote-un-quote, 'supposed' to go into this restroom or use a particular facility, then I understood it emotionally as well." Joining with other students in the Nashville area, she began to organize protests to fight the unacceptable racism. Around the same time, she started attending Gandhian nonviolence workshops, and after her initial skepticism, discovered that the idea of passive resistance was well-matched with her strong religious upbringing.
Read more about this topic: Diane Nash
Famous quotes containing the word education:
““We’ll encounter opposition, won’t we, if we give women the same education that we give to men,” Socrates says to Galucon. “For then we’d have to let women ... exercise in the company of men. And we know how ridiculous that would seem.” ... Convention and habit are women’s enemies here, and reason their ally.”
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“In that reconciling of God and Mammon which Mrs. Grantly had carried on so successfully in the education of her daughter, the organ had not been required, and had become withered, if not defunct, through want of use.”
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