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Post About “Catharine Lealtad, Class of 1915, Macalester’s First Black Graduate”
This text is part of a collection of student work from the Fall 2017 class HIST 294-04/AMST 294-01, Public History: African American Life — Past, Present and Future. Students selected, described, and analyzed items from the Macalester Archives pertaining to Black history. The entire class collection can be found here.
The artifact I have chosen from the Archives is a newspaper clipping from the St. Paul Dispatch about Catharine Lealtad, the first African American graduate of Macalester, a member of the Class of 1915. The article, written by Ann Baker, came out on June 18, 1979, with the headline, “Black Woman Doctor Has Fought Prejudice,” accompanied by a close-up photo of Lealtad at 83 years old. It is part of the “Senior/Trends” section and covers biographical information about Lealtad, such as her majors in History and Chemistry at Macalester. It also tracks the work she did throughout her life, as a teacher in Ohio, a health organizer with the Urban League in Harlem, and her experiences in medical school at Cornell, where she faced racism from professors and ultimately left to study in France. As a doctor, she went back to Harlem and worked there until 1944, where she went back to Europe to treat children in displaced persons’ camps. From there, she went to China, working amid its civil war, treating cholera at an International Medical Mission. Returning to the U.S., she retired in 1968 but came out of retirement to work in Puerto Rico and then Mexico City.
The article is mostly written in narrative style but is clearly based on an interview conducted with Lealtad when she was in St. Paul to receive an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Macalester in 1979. This was the second honorary degree she received from Macalester, also holding a Doctor of Science degree from 1949. This article about Catharine Lealtad is part of a larger folder from the Alumni Classes Collection in the Archives, full of newspaper clippings and other communications regarding Lealtad and her life.
Given the fact that the newspaper article from the St. Paul Dispatch was written in the event of Lealtad’s honorary degree, the tone is definitely laudatory, and emphasizes the ways that Lealtad experienced prejudices in her life but refused to let them limit her, removing herself from situations where she was facing racism or sexism and going on to places where she hoped to find more freedom. Near the beginning of the article, it says, “Prejudice from one group or another is something she has encountered ‘at every turn in the road.’” This quotation, although not specified, is probably something said by Lealtad herself. One thing that is noticeably absent from the article, however, is any mention of racism that Lealtad faced at Macalester. In fact, another newspaper article from the Archives folder goes so far as to say that Lealtad experienced racism everywhere she went except at Macalester. This absence of criticism of Macalester is not surprising, especially given the time it was written and the fact that Macalester was giving her an honorary degree, but it seems unlikely that Macalester was a place free from racism, especially because Lealtad was the only African American student in her class.
In sum, the article presents a comprehensive and complimentary look at Lealtad’s life, detailing her many accomplishments and contributions to global health efforts, all the while focusing on the ways she dealt with the racism and sexism she faced. Although it was written in 1979, it feels like an article you might find in a newspaper today, and by using Lealtad’s own voice through quotations to tell her own story, it seems to be presenting an account that is true to what Lealtad wanted published, even though she most likely had to tell her own story in a way that would be palatable to a general audience.
–Grace Clark
Source:
Baker, Ann. “Black Woman Doctor Has Fought Prejudice,” Saint Paul Dispatch (Saint Paul, MN), June 18, 1979. Catharine Lealtad (1915) folder, Alumni Classes Collection.
MetadataTitle: Post About 'Catharine Lealtad, Class of 1915, Macalester’s First Black Graduate'
Creator: Clark, Grace
Description: This text is part of a collection of student work from the Fall 2017 class HIST 294-04/AMST 294-01, Public History: African American Life — Past, Present and Future. Students selected, described, and analyzed items from the Macalester Archives pertaining to Black history. The entire class collection can be found in the Fall 2017 Public History Class tag.
Date Created:
Dates of Content: 1915-1979
Type of Content: Text
Source: Baker, Ann. “Black Woman Doctor Has Fought Prejudice,” Saint Paul Dispatch (Saint Paul, MN), June 18, 1979. Catharine Lealtad (1915) folder, Alumni Classes Collection.
URL: https://dwlibrary.macalester.edu/counterbalance/student-projects/catharine-lealtad-class-of-1915-macalesters-first-black-graduate/
Suggested Citation: Clark, Grace. " Post About 'Catharine Lealtad, Class of 1915, Macalester’s First Black Graduate'." Counterbalance, Macalester College Archives. . Text. https://dwlibrary.macalester.edu/counterbalance/student-projects/catharine-lealtad-class-of-1915-macalesters-first-black-graduate/.