Happy Women’s History Month! From hill to holler, Athens and OU are full of the gifts of centuries of women who helped build, grow and sustain this place. Athens has long been known for its civil rights efforts, and Ohio University has a 45-year history of Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. But women’s impact on OU go about 100 years past that. In honor of Women’s History Month this year, let’s take a quick look at the first woman to graduate OU – Margaret Boyd, and the first woman of Color to graduate from OU – Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn.
Margaret Boyd, Ohio University Class of 1873
Born in 1846, Margaret “Maggie” Boyd was the daughter of Irish immigrant farmers. In 1873, she became the first women to graduate Ohio University. Maggie was ahead of her time, and OU rose to the occasion. In a time where there was a demand for women’s higher education, but a time before that idea was even close to acceptable, Boyd forged a path for countless women to come after her.
Did you know that when she was first officially listed as an OU student her name was simply “M. Boyd”? The university wanted to avoid the potential scandal of the public knowing they had admitted a woman. But when 4 years later her diploma came with masculine Latin endings – she said, No way; not this time.
After graduation, Maggie found a job at Cincinnati Preparatory School for Women, becoming the head of their college Mathematics Department in less than 5 years. She was also the first woman to preside over the Alumni Association from 1894-1895. She had to return to Athens in the ‘90s because of health issues, where she taught in public schools until 1899.
Margaret Boyd died in 1905. Both the old and new Boyd Halls are named after her.
Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn, Ohio University Class of 1916
Another local brave-as-hell trailblazer in women’s educational rights was Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn. Born in 1895, Martha Jane graduated OU in 1916, majoring in English with a minor in Home Economics. Not only was this awesome because of representation for women and women of Color, but Blackburn decided to start her career after she had gotten married and had a kid – a move so revolutionary it’s to this day still a cultural debate across the country.
After turning down several universities vying for her teaching acumen, Martha Jane joined the faculty at West Virginia’s Booker T. Washington High School, where she taught home economics for 25 years. She prepared hundreds of Black women and girls for the misogynistic, racist gauntlet that was the professional sphere at the time, teaching them the skills and wit they’d need to become whatever they wanted. She was revered for her skill, passion, and the efficacy of her teaching style.
After what can only be described as a transformative career – for both her and those she represented, Blackburn retired to Arizona. In 1979, she was awarded the Medal of Merit at Ohio University. Templeton-Blackburn Memorial Auditorium was renamed such in 1986 in honor of her and John Newton Templeton – a former slave and freed man who became the first Black man to graduate from OU in 1828.
Martha Jane Hunley Blackburn died in 1992.See? At Ohio University, we’re all standing on the shoulders of some pretty femme giants. Learn more about women’s history at OU and Athens with the Women’s Center at the Division of Diversity and Inclusion.