# @oberlincollege on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/C4R8DlrIFCd
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/26215715-oberlincollege-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/17c9c18f16.jpg
- **Posted:** 2024-03-09T04:35:27.000+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: Frances Walker Slocum. ✨💐💫
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Frances Walker Slocum '45 was a pianist and organist born in D.C. She was also the first Black woman to be granted tenure at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Despite enduring a traumatic burn that weakened her right arm as a child, she overcame this adversity to pursue an education in piano performance. She was awarded her Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory in 1945. In 1976, Walker returned to Oberlin to play a bicentennial concert celebrating the music of Black composers. Her performance left such an impression that conservatory administrators immediately offered her a tenure-track faculty position to teach that fall, making her the first African-American woman professor to earn tenure in the Conservatory.
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Determined to progress classical music, Walker often programmed the music of lesser-known Black composers such as Scott Joplin, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and fellow alum William Grant Still. She also fought for gender equity in salary and boldly entered into an interracial marriage amid a torrent of condemnation. Walker debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1959 and played engagements at major venues across the U.S. and beyond for decades. Although she passed away in 2018, her legacy remains a gift to the classical world and the many Oberlin Conservatory graduates whom she mentored.
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Photo courtesy of Oberlin College
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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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