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Interviewees
Harris, Grace E.
Interviewer
Hill, Kathryn Colwell
Description
Dr. Grace E. Harris has had a 40-year career at Virginia Commonwealth University. She rose from the ranks as a social work professor to become Dean of the School of Social Work, then Vice Provost for Continuing Studies and Public service. When she retired in 1999 as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, she had twice served as Acting President of the University. Harris (1933-) is a native of Halifax County. She received her undergraduate degree from Hampton Institute, which is now Hampton University. When Harris first applied for admission to Richmond Professional Institute’s School of Social Work graduate program in 1954, she was denied admission because of her race and the Commonwealth of Virginia paid for her to attend Boston University instead. After attending Boston University for one year, she transferred to Richmond Professional Institute in the late 1950s. This time the school admitted her to the program. She received her Master’s of Social Work in 1960. She then earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in sociology from the University of Virginia. She became one of the first three African American faculty members hired by Richmond Professional Institute in 1967 when she became a member of the faculty of the School of Social Work. In 1982 she was named Dean of the School of Social Work and became Provost of the University in 1993. Twice, she briefly served as interim president of Virginia Commonwealth University in the 1990s. She retired from VCU as Provost in 1999 but continued to serve as a faculty leader of the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute – a program designed to strengthen the leadership capacity among VCU faculty and staff. In December of 2007 the former School of Business building at 1015 Floyd Ave. was named the Grace E. Harris Hall. Harris and her husband, James W. “Dick” Harris, have two adult children and one grandson. In this interview, Grace E. Harris discusses her early childhood and her family's emphasis on community service; her education at Grinnell College, her social work career and her positions in the community and at VCU; her career as Vice Provost; the merger of RPI and MCV; her approach to life decisions; the Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute; the influence of her aunt, Grace Ewell Harris; and her thoughts on writing her memoirs.
Personal Name Subject
Harris, Grace E. -- Interviews
Corporate Name Subject
Virginia Commonwealth University. Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute; Richmond Professional Institute; Medical College of Virginia; Virginia Commonwealth University -- Faculty
Topical Subject
African American women college administrators -- Virginia -- Richmond -- Interviews; African American women educators -- Virginia -- Richmond -- Interviews; African American women in higher education -- Virginia -- Richmond -- Interviews; African American women civic leaders -- Virginia -- Richmond -- Interviews; Leadership in women -- Virginia -- Richmond
City/Location
Richmond (Va.)
Genre
oral histories (literary genre)
Local Genre
oral history; sound recording; text
Type
Sound; Text
Digital Format
audio/mp3
Language
eng
Rights Statement URL
Rights
This material is protected by copyright, and copyright is held by VCU. You are permitted to use this material in any way that is permitted by copyright. In addition, this material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Acknowledgment of Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries as a source is required.
Collection
VCU Oral History Archive
Source
Grace Harris interview (Acc: 2007-02-27), Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University.
File Name
ohi_harrisgracee_part01.mp3