Honoring a Legend: A Special Episode on the Life of Edith Renfrow Smith

This January, we said a heartbreaking goodbye to a giant of our community, Edith Renfrow Smith, who passed away at the age of 111. To honor her incredible legacy, the Temple Forum is releasing a very special conversation. Last summer, shortly after Edith’s 111th birthday, we sat down with womanist sociologist Dr. Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant (“Dr. B”) to discuss Edith’s story—a narrative that spans the very arc of American history. While this recording was held for some time, we believe there is no better moment than now to share these insights into her life, her family’s "willful matriline," and her groundbreaking journey as the first Black graduate of Grinnell College. Join us as Dr. B helps us reflect on the "abundant life" Edith led and the history she leaves behind for all of us at the Chicago Temple and beyond.   * Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant (known as “Dr. B” on campus) is a womanist sociologist.  She came to Grinnell in fall 2019 and teaches the three core courses (Intro, Theory and Methods, and Senior Seminar) as well as the electives Growing up Girl, Feminist Educations, and Beyond the Little Mermaid: Race, Gender, and the Global Waters. A qualitative researcher, she focuses on Black women’s contemporary and historical acts of self-definition.  Her published work has examined Black women’s pedagogy as a form of “politicized mothering,” the embodied costs of being a strong Black woman, and the liberal arts vision of “living abundantly” championed by Lucy Diggs Slowe, the first trained African American student affairs professional.  Increasingly interested in higher education histories and narratives of belonging, she is at work on a book manuscript tentatively titled, You may call me Eva P.: Portraits of a willful Black matriline, 1837-1937.   #EdithRenfrowSmith #InMemoriam #ChicagoTemple #BlackHistory #GrinnellCollege #TempleForum