BOULDER – The University of Colorado has decided to honor its first black female graduate, who wasn’t allowed to walk across the stage in 1918.
The Daily Camera reports that Polly McLean, a CU associate professor who researched the woman’s story and corrected the record at the university, will host the inaugural Lucile Berkeley Buchanan Lecture on April 4.
Buchanan was born in Denver in 1884 to former slaves. She earned a degree in German at CU and became a teacher. She died at age 105 in 1989 and was buried without a headstone until a fellow graduate paid for one, which brought her story to light.
McLean, who is on sabbatical and could not be reached, will accept Buchanan’s degree onstage at the Boulder campus’ spring commencement May 10.