The earliest members of Kappa Gamma Chi were resilient in the face of
the hostility received at their arrival. They were also gracious in
return. The best proof comes from the 1920 Austin College yearbook. As
the new Roo women on campus attempted to gain membership at all-male
organizations, nearly every one of those organizations said NO. The
Athenaeum Literary Society, however, said YES.
Ms. Lola Belle Perkins left Austin College with the following parting words for the Athenaeums in the 1920 AC yearbook:
“To the Athenaeums: As one of the first co-eds in Austin College, I
wish to speak a few words of appreciation to you. When we came into the
College but were still standing on the outside of college life, there
was one organization whose representative very bravely stood up in
Chapel and extended a cordial invitation to all the young ladies to
become Athenaeums. We cannot express to you how deeply we appreciated
your attitude toward us. Though we have our own Literary Society this
year, we are in reality as much ‘Aths’ as we ever were. [That] you may
ever live, grow, and succeed in every enterprise is the earnest desire
of your co-ed members. – L. B. P.”
Thank you Kappas for your
cordial invitation this past weekend to celebrate with you the 100th
anniversary of Kappa Gamma Chi. The opportunity to tell the tale of
Kappa Gamma Chi founder Lola Belle Perkins was deeply appreciated. For
those who could not make it to Sherman this past Saturday, I’ve posted
the story below. Another 100 years of Kappa Gamma Chi is the earnest
desire of me, your co-ed member. – M. H. P.
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Remarks by Marc Parrish at Austin College Homecoming 2019 celebrating the 100th anniversary of Kappa Gamma Chi:
Howdy Kappas. My name is Marc Parrish. I’m a 1992 graduate of Austin
College. Some of you may know me as the crazy guy who is always telling
old Austin College stories on Facebook. I call them Roo Tales. If you
aren’t on Facebook, I’d highly recommend staying off. It’s a silly
place. But, if an old Roo Tale or two sounds like an interesting read
to you, well, then, who am I to stop you from joining the
ridiculousness?
My wife Dianne is here. Wave hon! Dianne is
not a Roo; she’s a Longhorn. If you happen to like the Roo stories,
please tell her so. She has a woman’s proverbial patience with all of
the writing, and hearing from you will only help the cause.
Unlike Dr. Randi Tanglen, I am not an academic. Also, unlike most of
you, I am not a Kappa. There are many reasons for that. I think the
main one is pretty obvious…………I’m just not nearly as much fun as y’all.
So why I am here? I’m here because I stumbled upon the dirty little
secret of Kappa Gamma Chi. Everyone knows just how fun and successful
your family is of course. Few know the secret, but you all do. And now
I do to. What’s the secret?
Kappas are a bunch of revolutionary badasses.
It’s important to remember that Austin College came late to the party.
When women were finally admitted to AC 100 years ago, nearly every
other college in Texas had already opened their doors. Only one school
remained closed to females after AC finally relented: Texas A&M
University, in my hometown of College Station. And make no mistake, the
women who arrived here a century ago were decidedly unwelcome.
While writing a different tale about an Austin College Kangaroo soldier
who died in the battlefields of World War 1, I came across another
story about one of the Kappa founders. I was so moved by her story that
I did what I usually do. I wrote about it, and I sent it to Jenny King
for her to use however she wanted on the 100th Kappa anniversary.
Jenny suggested that I instead come to the Kappa brunch at Homecoming
and tell the story in person. As Forrest Gump might have said, “I
thought that was a fine idea Jenny.” Thank you Jenny for the invite.
So, without further ado. This is the Roo Tale of Kappa Gamma Chi founder Lola Belle Perkins:
————————————————–
The administration of Austin College was faced with an unfortunate dilemma.
For decades, the Austin College History department had awarded a
fellowship to the AC student with the highest grade point average in the
discipline. Becoming the Stephen F. Austin Fellow in History allowed
the recipient to teach a history class for prep school students on
campus. The opportunity to teach was a milestone that often launched
careers in the profession, and many AC students before 1919 counted
themselves as Austin Fellows. However, there was an awkward problem
involving the winner of the 1919 fellowship.
The winner………………was a woman.
The male faculty gathered to determine how to proceed. Clearly,
allowing the woman to teach was not an option. At the same time, the
student’s academic success demanded that she be recognized. A
compromise was reached. It was agreed that the recipient would be
honored for her classwork. She would also be rewarded by serving as the
prep class grader; the instructor role would be filled elsewhere.
The faculty approached Miss Lola Belle Perkins, the newest Stephen F.
Austin Fellow, and carefully explained the complexities and
sensitivities involved. They congratulated Perkins on her achievement,
and congratulated themselves for graciously offering the compromise.
The faculty expected her to accept. Ms. Perkins carefully thought it
over, before finally delivering her reply.
She told those old guys to take a hike.
Perkins rebelled at her second class treatment at the hands of the
faculty, and demanded what was rightfully hers: the award to teach the
prep school class. Taken aback by the hostile reaction, the faces of
the faculty turned a dark Kappa purple.
This, from Dr. Light Cummins’ work “Austin College: A Sesquicentennial History:”
“Ms. Perkins shamed the administration into letting her teach, thereby becoming the first woman instructor at Austin College.”
Lola Belle Perkins was born in 1896; she was the third of three kids,
with two older brothers. The family had moved from Mississippi to north
Texas at the turn of the century, settling in Grayson County. The
brothers were encouraged to pursue an education, and the family was
determined that daughter Lola would enjoy the same. In 1914 at the age
of 18, Ms. Perkins enrolled in college at the University of North Texas.
For two years, she thrived in Denton. Perkins was the Vice-President
of the Language Club, a contributor to the UNT Athletic Association, and
a member of the Mary Arden literary club. The appropriately named Mary
Arden club was a literary society which included women; Mary Arden was
the mother of William Shakespeare. The University of North Texas,
founded in 1890, had admitted women on its first day of classes; the
earliest UNT female graduates in the 19th century had made the school a
welcoming place. Perkins was on course to join them at graduation in
1919, but life got in the way.
World War abroad and family life
at home temporarily interrupted her studies. Perkins returned to
Grayson county for two years to look after family in Sherman. She also
worked as an instructor and acting Principal at the high school in
nearby Bells, TX. The 1918 Texas Education Agency handbook indicates
that she had received a teaching certificate from North Texas for her
two years of work in Denton; she taught a full class load at Bells, in
the subjects of English and History.
Yes, that’s right. Lola
Belle Perkins, the Stephen F. Austin Fellow in 1919 denied the
opportunity to teach prep school history, was already a veteran of
teaching prep school history before her enrollment at Austin College.
The injustice of refusing to admit women at Austin College had always
existed, but the national emergency of war made clear the damage of the
policy to the school itself. The total number of students declined
dramatically during the 1917-18 academic year, and the college was once
again struggling to survive. A June 1918 vote by the AC Board of
Trustees to allow for the admission of women had the backing of
President Thomas Clyce and a good number of faculty, but also met
significant resistance from students and alumni.
Nevertheless,
Dr. Clyce and his supporters had long since decided to vote in favor.
Clyce specifically mentioned that nearly every other college of higher
education in the state of Texas had already accepted women students. In
the mind of Clyce, the change was long overdue.
As it was at
Austin College, so it was across the nation. The suffrage movement to
franchise women was a decades long effort. Between 1890, when women
first won the vote in Wyoming, and 1918, when Perkins arrived on campus,
only 15 states granted women the right to participate in national
elections. Texas was not one of them. Women in the Lone Star State and
across the country did not fully secure the vote until August 1920,
well after Perkins had her AC diploma in hand.
For Perkins, the
Trustees vote to allow female enrollment at Austin College was an
opportunity to continue her studies near home and complete her degree.
After the policy change that summer, Perkins and 21 other women enrolled
at Austin College in the fall of 1918. The women were all met with
curiosity, suspicion, and even outright hostility. From Dr. Cummins
once again:
“Although the women gained immediate acceptance in
their classes, it took time for them to achieve full social approval on
campus since a subtle prejudice against them existed in certain
quarters.”
Ms. Perkins was a leader amongst the 22 newly
enrolled women. She was elected President of the Girls’ Council, made
the AC Honor Roll, and was also a member of the first AC Women’s
Basketball team. Alongside classmate and fellow Kappa founder Gladys
Cornell, Perkins was one of only two women entrusted with overseeing the
yearbook. She earned the Associate Literary Editor position for her
work on the 1920 Chromascope. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Head
Literary Editor position went to a male.
As Perkins thrived
academically and athletically, campus social organizations continued to
remain off limits. Of the eleven student organizations on campus, only
two voted to permit female members. Literary societies were the social
organizations of the day, and were particularly resistant to change.
One male literary society on campus which had voted against the
admission of women was clear about its position:
“The conclusion
has been reached that the most effective work can be accomplished by
having separate societies for the young ladies.”
The reply to this unfortunate news from Perkins and Cornell was simple:
“We don’t need your stinkin’ literary society.”
In 1919, Lola Belle Perkins and Gladys Cornell established the Kappa
Gamma Chi literary society. An all-female organization, it boasted 18
members at inception and served as the academic and social vehicle
denied to the women by the existing male dominated groups. The first
Kappas appear in the 1920 Chromascope on the steps of the old AC YMCA.
Having been denied access to a wing of Luckett Hall and forced to
initially live off campus, Kappa members eventually secured on campus
residence on the third floor at the Y. Kappas held their first meetings
in Sherman Hall alongside the all-male literary society that had
earlier refused membership.
The earliest Kappas were resilient
in the face of the hostility received at their arrival. They were also
gracious in return. Perkins, Cornell, and their fellow Kappas were
simply demanding their well-deserved place on campus, and made it clear
that their inclusion was not a zero sum game with the male students.
Their attitudes are found in a section of the 1920 Chromascope entitled
“The Co-eds as They See Themselves,” which Perkins and Cornell worked to
produce:
“Austin College will receive young ladies in the
student body in 1919! Such was the announcement late last summer which
caused so much wonder, speculation, and to a few of us, deep
contemplation. Just what would it mean to go to Austin College, a
college that has been strictly for men during the past sixty-nine years?
It was indeed hard, those first weeks when we felt that our presence
was more or less resented and that our object in coming was entirely
mistaken.”
“Of course we are aware that habit is a powerful
factor in life, that after thinking in terms of and for men during so
long a period of time, it is indeed difficult to change in the twinkling
of an eye. Therefore, understanding these things as we do, we are
willing to wait with a woman’s proverbial patience until all are
thoroughly accustomed to our presence, to the fact that we truly are
here.”
“And if we, as girls, do possess the influence which we
are told is ours, may it be used only in the highest way. Austin
College deserves no less from us because of her enviable record in
educational affairs. She has given to the world many worth-while men;
men truly great, who demand the respect and admiration of all. Their
alma mater is proud, and justly so, of such sons. And in the future
years may there be daughters of whom she can be equally as proud.”
In the 1919 Chromascope, Perkins and Cornell wrote that the newest
Kappas were proud to be Kangaroos, with “never a thought of intruding or
trespassing upon sacred rights and traditions.” Five years later, the
Kappas added a sacred tradition of their own. Austin College celebrated
its “Diamond Jubilee” in 1924, the 75th anniversary of its founding.
As a gift to the college to mark the occasion, the women of Kappa Gamma
Chi constructed and dedicated a fountain on campus.
At a
presentation address to lay the fountain cornerstone, the President of
Austin College rose to offer a few words. From the 1924 Chromascope:
“Dr. Clyce speaking on behalf of the college gave thanks to the girls,
expressing the gratitude and appreciation that the college in general
holds for the gift and for the never-failing loyalty and devotion of the
co-eds of Austin College.”
Nearly a century later, the Kappa fountain remains an iconic feature on campus.
Lola Belle Perkins had successfully shamed AC administration into
granting her the well-earned teaching position that came with her
Stephen F. Austin Fellowship. After a year of teaching history to the
AC prep school boys, she graduated from Austin College in 1920. That
same year, she and other Texas women were finally able to vote in a U.S.
Presidential election. Perkins pursued a lifelong career in Texas
education, one of only a handful of occupational roles available to
women at the time. She had crashed through a few glass ceilings of her
own, leaving other hurdles for future Kappas to tackle.
Like the
proverbial Stone of Sisyphus, 100 years of Kappa women have had to
continually push uphill to find their deserved place on campus and in
the nation. In spite of 100 years of progress, obstacles remain. Looks
like we’ll need at least another century of Kappa Gamma Chi. But one
day Kappas will get that stone to the top of that mountain, celebrate
those who have come before, push it over the summit, and let that
rock……..and the good times……..roll.
Thank you, and congratulations to Kappa Gamma Chi on your 100th anniversary.
