Betty Glenn Thomas Project

Betty Glenn Thomas Project

In the spring of 2019, students in Oberlin College History 214 inaugurated an ongoing research project focused on the life and milieu of Betty Glenn Thomas. Elizabeth (Betty) Glenn Thomas was born at 195 North Professor Street on July 2, 1913, and died in the same house on October 3, 1989. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1936 and in 1940 became the first African-American public school teacher in the Oberlin Public Schools. Her life and career are remarkable for many reasons, including what her biography reveals about broader contexts of race, education access, and society in Oberlin and the United States. Students in this course strive as a group and in partnership with community members to uncover and elucidate her life and influence on the community and represent her greater significance through this digital humanities project.