Lucy Hale Tapley

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Lucy Hale Tapley left her home overlooking the Bagaduce River in Brooksville, Maine, at age 33. Like the seafaring Tapley men, she sought adventure and to make her mark on the world. Arriving in Atlanta, she joined a fledgling school for Black women and girls recently freed from slavery. Over the next four decades, Lucy set the school on a course to become one of the country's most prominent historically Black colleges. While retaining her ties to New England throughout her life, her contribution to the education of Black women in the South is a remarkable legacy. Through the lens of Tapley's Presidential Collection at Spelman College, we see up close the depth and breadth of her influence. As one student described, "her penetrating blue eyes seemed to divine that Negro women have souls, ideals and ambitions. . . . [F]ighting ignorance, prejudice and criticism . . . she had a vision of our needs and possibilities. Then, in the face of ostracism and great difficulties, she had the courage to carry on the work of the pioneers."