Professor Polly McLean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø will co-host a reception to launch a student produced book "A Legacy of Missing Pieces: The Voices of Black Women of Â鶹¹ÙÍø County" on Friday, Feb. 22.
The reception is from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Center for British Studies, Norlin Library, fifth floor.
McLean spearheaded a remarkable class project to chronicle the contributions and life histories of black women in Â鶹¹ÙÍø County from the end of the 19th century to the present through archival work and oral history interviews with some 23 black women.
The Legacy Project has unearthed historical evidence of the first black female graduate of the University of Colorado at Â鶹¹ÙÍø, Lillian Buchanan, who graduated in 1918. In addition, the project found evidence of Â鶹¹ÙÍø's black baseball teams, the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Blues and the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Dragons, and a black female softball team sponsored by Howe Mortuary in the early 1930s.
McLean says that "in some ways, black women's history and black history in general in Â鶹¹ÙÍø County is being rewritten by the Legacy Project."
As part of the reception, Helen McVey Washington, the 94-year-old black matriarch with Â鶹¹ÙÍø County roots, will receive the Legacy Award from Women's Studies for her "achievements in helping to build and define community in Â鶹¹ÙÍø County, Colorado."
The Legacy Project is sponsored by Women's Studies, Ethnic Studies, the University Research Opportunities Program, the Implementation of Multicultural Perspectives and Approaches in Research and Teaching Program, and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
An exhibit honoring Black History and Women's History Month also will be on display in Special Collections, Norlin Library, Room N345, third floor, northwest corner, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.