Legacy of WMU alumnus inspires local travel club for children

By Erin Kaplan
Western Herald

Close your eyes and picture East Campus — back in 1927. This was the year that Merze Tate walked out of East Hall with a degree in education as one of the first black women to graduate from Western Michigan University.

Photo courtesy Sonya Bernard-Hollins | Merze Tate rides her bike on the campus of Oxford University.

Tate went on to be the first black to receive the Honorary Alumni Award, which hangs today in the Bernard Center.

Although she was at the top of her class, Tate could not get a teaching job in Michigan because no one would hire a black teacher, said Sonya Bernard-Hollins, who founded the Merze Tate Travel Club in 2008.

At the same time, Dwight B. Waldo, WMU’s first president, helped Tate obtain a job at Crispus Attucks, a brand new school in Indianapolis, Ind. The school formed because white residents in the area did not want their children going to school with black students.

While working at Crispus Attucks, Tate formed a travel club for her students. She took them to many different places, including Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Niagara Falls.

From there, Tate went on to receive a Master’s degree in political science from Oxford. She was the first black woman to graduate from Oxford.

Tate relayed information from England back to black newspapers.

“She was the first African American women to be an ambassador for the state department for the US,” Bernard-Hollins said.

“From Oxford and the [US] State Department she served as a journalist, sending information to African American newspapers,” she said. “She was [the] eyes and ears for a lot of African Americans who couldn’t do that traveling.”

Tate then went to study at Harvard University and earned her Ph.D. in government and international relations.

Originally from Mecosta County, she grew up on a farm. In 10th grade, her school burned down, and the school told the students that they had all graduated. Determined to go to college, Tate transferred to Battle Creek Central High.

“Tate lived with a family as a maid in Battle Creek to pay for her room and board,” Bernard-Hollins said. “She graduated at the top of her class at BCC and would have gotten valedictorian, but other students were mad that she hadn’t been there for all four years. She won an oratorical contest in eleventh grade, and was the first African American to win it.”

Later in life, Tate went to teach at Howard University in Washington, D.C. While there, she retired from working, and died.

Merze Tate left a legacy. While she was never married, she left over $1 million to Western Michigan University. Located in Sangren Hall is the Merze Tate Center, named after her.

“She left money to Harvard and Howard, too. She left money to the universities that supported her and especially WMU being her first,” Bernard-Hollins said.

Since her death, she has been recognized for her talents by the Women’s Hall of Fame in Lansing, Mich.

“Lots of doors were shut on her because of racism and she didn’t let it stop her. She let it help her achieve high levels of education. She was very influential. People listened to her.
She felt education could help overcome many things,” Bernard-Hollins said.

Studying Merze Tate inspired Bernard-Hollins to start her own travel club for children.

The club is for girls in grades five through 12. A grant from the Kalamazoo Community Foundation allowed Hollins to start up the program in 2008 and they tour places around the state.

They’ve taken trips to meet Bruce Kocher, vice president of Student Services at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and Eileen Wilson-Oyelaran, first female president of Kalamazoo College.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Mar 7 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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