# @oberlincollege on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C4HM2wcqwRo
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26215682-oberlincollege-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/03e35676f7.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-03-05T00:30:37.000+00:00

## Caption

🪷 In honor of Women's History Month and the ongoing ✊🏿 Black History Month celebrations on campus, we present today's illustrious alumna: Shirley Graham Du Bois. ✨💐💫
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Shirley Graham Du Bois '34 was an African-American musicologist, playwright, composer, and activist. She studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France in 1926, where she immersed herself in African and Afro-Caribbean music.
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In 1932, while at Oberlin, she wrote and staged "Tom-Tom: An Epic of Music and the Negro." The opera drew over 25,000 viewers to its premiere at the Cleveland Stadium Opera, making history as the first opera written and staged by a Black woman. Her Oberlin thesis, "The Survival of Africanisms in Modern Music," posited African influences on European music.
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By 1942, Du Bois led the YWCA–United Service Organizations at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, supporting 15,000 Black service members. After advocating for justice following the death of three Black soldiers, she faced dismissal but soon made significant contributions to the NAACP. She authored numerous plays, biographies, and novels and established the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation in the '60s, playing a key role in building the nation of Ghana. Her literary endeavors earned her the Messner and Anisfield-Wolf awards.
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Photo courtesy of Harvard University, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, W402250_1.
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#womenshistorymonth #bhm #oberlinalumni #oberlin #oberlincollege #oberlinohio #blackhistorymonth #highered

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## Credits

| Name | Username | Profile | Role |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| oberlincollege | @oberlincollege | https://gondola.cc/oberlincollege | University |
| Dae Williams | @daeqwill | https://gondola.cc/daeqwill | Copywriter |
| Dae Williams | @daeqwill | https://gondola.cc/daeqwill | Social Media Strategist |

## Tags

oberlincollege, highered, bhm, oberlinalumni, womenshistorymonth, blackhistorymonth, oberlinohio, oberlin

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