Notable Black Women at the University of Idaho

by Brody Gasper

The University of Idaho has had many exceptional Black students and employees come through its doors, diversifying and making the campus a more educated space. These individuals have paved much of the history at U of I, especially in terms of furthering Black History, but in also the actually historical standing of the University itself. Many of these individuals’ stories at U of I have been told thanks to the work done by the Black History Research Lab, but there have been other stories that have not been told as extensively as they should have.

One of these key groups is Black women, who have contributed much to U of I, dating as far back as the founding of the school itself in the late 19th century. Black women at the University of Idaho have been in almost every occupation, from students or student-athletes to staff members and professors. Black women have and continue to make up a small proportion of the U of I campus, with the overall Black population on campus being less than 2% of the overall population.¹ Under this less than 2% number, Black women most likely make up less than half of the Black population on campus, with the majority of Black students and staff/faculty members identifying as male. As such, their stories have not been told as effectively as they should have been, which will hopefully be rectified in the future.

Looking at U of I’s history, the first Black women on campus were students at the beginning of the school’s founding. The first Black student at the University of Idaho was, of course, Jennie Eva Hughes, who enrolled at the University of Idaho in 1895.² She was a successful student at the University of Idaho, noted as having “…accumulated an admirable academic record”.³ Her academic career would eventually carry her to receiving her Bachelor’s degree in 1899. After U of I, Hughes married George Augustus Smith in 1899 and eventually moved to the Spokane area.

The second-ever student at U of I was interestingly enough Jennie Eva Hughes’ sister, Edna Gertrude Chrisman, who enrolled at the preparatory school in 1903. Chrisman would continue to attend U of I’s preparatory school, eventually finishing that and beginning her freshman year of college in 1908. She would eventually move to California and work there as a teacher.⁴ These two Black women were very transformative in the beginning years of U of I’s Black history, they would be the only two Black women students on campus for a while, at least until the 1970s with the arrival of student-athletes.

The first of these Black women student-athletes was Willette White, who played for the Vandals women’s basketball team from 1979 to 1981. During her time at U of I, she set a record collegiate career, averaging 11.5 points per game, leading the Vandals women’s team to their 64-22 record. She then helped lead the team to back-to-back NCWSA Division II Northwest Region titles in 1980 and 1981. In 1981, she was nominated as a two-time AIAW All-Region Team honoree.⁵

After her career at the University of Idaho, White worked as a graduate assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at Ohio State University from 1982 to 1984. She has been an assistant coach of the women’s program at the University of Washington since 1986.⁶ She has since been elected to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges’ Hall of Fame in 1992 and later the Vandals Hall of Fame in 2008.⁷

Angela Whyte was another Black woman student-athlete who attended U of I from 2001-2003 and set several records. In 2001 Whyte earned All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field championships as well as being nominated the Big West Women’s Athlete of the Year. In 2003, she was again nominated the Big West Women’s Athlete of the Year, also setting the all-time record and the Big West Championship meet record.⁸ She eventually graduated with her bachelor’s degree in crime and justice studies in 2003 but would continue to participate in track and field in several Olympic Games from 2003 to 2016.⁹ She eventually returned to U of I and earned her master’s degree in 2014, preceding to coach for the Vandals track and field team for six years.¹⁰ In 2015, she left U of I for Washington State University, serving as an assistant coach for the track and field team. In 2010, she was inducted into the Vandals Hall of Fame.¹¹

Outside of students, there have been several Black women faculty and staff members at U of I. One of those was Dr. Florence Anna “Pat” White, who came to the University of Idaho in 1976 as a graduate assistant.¹² Dr. White earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education at Langston University in 1963, proceeding to teach at Matt Kelly Elementary School in Las Vegas, Nevada from 1963 to 1967. She then began teaching at Vegas Verdes Elementary School from 1967 to 1970, moving again to Buckman Elementary School and teaching there until 1976.¹³ She started a graduate assistantship at U of I in 1976, finishing it in 1978 after which, she began working as a full-time faculty member at the University of Idaho. After becoming an associate professor, she taught two courses during the 1990-1991 school year, ED 201 (Intro to Teaching) and ED 581 (Systematic and Objective Analysis Instruction or SOAI).

Another notable Black woman at the University of Idaho was Dr. Jessica Samuels, who has had a long history on campus. Starting off as a student in 2004, she would go on to receive her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 2009, her Master’s in Public Administration in 2013, and her Ph.D. in Political Science in 2022.¹⁴ She also served as the Academic Success Counselor at U of I from 2014-2017, which then led to her employment as an Academic Success Counselor SSS for Trio. After her long stay at U of I, Samuels would eventually move on to Washington State University and serve as the Assistant Director of Multicultural Student Services in 2022, where she currently serves.

Professor Shaakirrah R. Sanders was another quite notable Black woman at U of I, who was a professor of law at the Boise campus College of Law, being the first Black woman, and second person of color, to achieve the rank of full professor at the University of Idaho in 2018.¹⁵ Before her time at U of I, she attended the Trinity College at Hartford from 1994 to 1997, where she received her Bachelor’s degree. From there she enrolled at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law from 1998-2001 where she earned her Juris Doctorate. After her education, she worked at several firms, the first being K&L Gates as an Appellate, Constitutional, and Government Litigation Associate from 2005-2008, eventually joining the Public Defender Association as a staff attorney in 2008.¹⁶

She would work a brief stint as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Seattle University School of Law, transitioning to the University of Idaho in 2011. At U of I, she would become an associate professor for 13 years, though her experience was not the best due to discrimination. In 2019 she filed a lawsuit against the University and the former dean of the College of Law, Mark Adams, citing that racial and gender discrimination prevented her from being hired as the associate dean at the College of Law.¹⁷ In 2023, Sanders would become an Associate Dean, Professor of Law, and Distinguished Faculty Scholar at Penn State Dickinson Law.

One final Black woman who deserves recognition at U of I is Patricia Edwards-Dixon, who has been at the University for a while and has helped bring the Black History of U of I forward. Originally from Jamaica, Patricia received her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Management Studies at the University of the West Indies in 1999.¹⁸ She would then go on to earn her Graduate Certificate in Training and Development from Illinois State University. Her story at U of I began in 2012 with her enrollment, in which she earned her Master’s in Adult, Organizational Learning, and Leadership in 2014.¹⁹ She has since served as a Financial Specialist for the College of Education, helping to manage funds for Black History Research.

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