The First Black Graduates of UI: Jennie Eva Hughes
The First Black Graduates of UI: Jennie Eva Hughes
Starting at the beginning, the University of Idaho was founded in 1889 by Governor Stevenson when he signed the Territorial Legislature’s Council Bill No. 20.1 The first graduating class of the University was 1896, which saw a total of four graduates: two White men and two White women. This graduating class is not unusual for the time in the Northwest United States, especially before the First and Second Great Migrations in the 20th century; however, the enrollment during the 1895-1896 school year was peculiar.
Jennie Eva Hughes was the first Black/African-American student to enroll at the University of Idaho in 1895 after graduating from Moscow High School on April 26, 1895.2 Though not much is known about her father, Alexander Hughes, it is known that her mother, Louisa, and her stepfather, Lewis E. Crisemon, were soon married after Jennie Eva Hughes’s birth. The Crisemon family moved west, first stopping in Pennsylvania, where Louisa had their first child, Gertrude. Eventually, the family resettled in Moscow, Idaho, during the 1890s, joining the 201 Black/African-American families in Idaho and becoming the only Black/African-American family in Moscow.3
The Crisemon family became quite reputable within Moscow. Hughes’s father likely became a successful businessman of either a restaurant or barbershop (those were the only two professions open to Blacks/African-Americans at the time),4 and her mother worked as a houseworker in the Moscow area as evidenced by Jennie Eva Hughes’s 1898 registration card.5
This apparent ease of the Crisemon family to blend in with the town of Moscow does suggest that the small town may not have been as racially barring toward the small migration of Black people as other western towns at the time. This certainly would have made life easier for the Crisemons in the Moscow area; however, recent work concerning Moscow history in the early 20th century somewhat damages that perspective.
In an article published by NPR, James Lowen (a sociologist and historian) discussed his research into sundown towns across the United States and notes that Moscow was one such town.6 Somewhere between 1904 and 1909, the Chinese population of Moscow was driven out of the town by “cowboys,” which certainly highlights a racist attitude towards the town’s non-white inhabitants.7 While this took place after the Hughes family settled in Moscow, it is an essential element to remember as the town would not have developed this line of thought overnight. This information certainly makes Jennie Eva Hughes’s story all the more impressive, as she not only settled in the area, but also attended the University of Idaho and obtained her bachelor’s degree.
Looking at Hughes’s academic career in Moscow and at the University of Idaho, she was an excellent student who excelled in her studies. She is noted as having “…accumulated an admirable academic record”8 and certainly showed her excellence within the cla