An Uncommon Experience
Ricki Fairley had a Dartmouth experience unlike many portrayed in the literature on Black people's relationship to elite educational institutions. She was a Dartmouth legacy, the child of two parents with extensive and impressive educational backgrounds. Additionally, she hailed from a well-resourced community in Silver Spring, MD where her middle-class family could afford to send her to Catholic School, where she was the only Black girl.
Going to Dartmouth would introduce Ms. Fairley to a new experience that allowed her to be immersed in diversity while also allowing her to find community in the spaces she shared with people who looked like her.
A Dartmouth Legacy
As the daughter of Richard Fairley '55, a very influential Dartmouth student and alum, Ms. Fairley had a very deep connection with Dartmouth. She remembers coming to Dartmouth with her dad for winter carnivals as early as the tender age of eleven.
She remembers one particular trip during her junior year of high school that played a huge role in her decision to come to Dartmouth. She made the trip up with her dad to campus as he was working to create BADA [Black Alumni of Dartmouth Association]. Her job at the time was to be the babysitter for all of her uncles' kids. Her uncles were also founding members of BADA.
For three weeks up in Hanover, she spent time getting to know the campus, and the people, and falling in love with the school. This particular trip allowed her to form a special connection that convinced her to pick Dartmouth above the other schools that piqued her interest, including other Ivy League institutions.
Though Mr. Fairley '55 had some apprehensions about Ricki attending what he considered to be a "Man's School," he highly encouraged her to attend an Ivy League institution and offered to pay for it if she were to do so. Soon after, Ms. Fairley was admitted and arrived on campus knowing a lot about unique Dartmouth traditions from the many visits she made to campus with her dad. Dartmouth officially became another special thing they shared.
Fairley’s experience diverged from other Black students in that her father was already an influential alum. As a Dartmouth legacy, she had always been exposed to the appreciation for education. This was a value that not all families shared because having the privilege to continue on to higher education was not a reality for everyone.
Texts like Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and The Ivy League and Transforming the Elite: Black Students and Desegregation of Private Schools suggest that the primary conduit for Black students was through programs like ABC [A Better Chance], NAIS [National Association of Independent Schools], or schools like Westminister that made an intentional effort to make elite education accessible to Black students.
While these programs did not play a huge role in connecting Ms. Fairley to Dartmouth, there existed other programs on campus that aimed to provide students with the necessary resources to succeed upon their arrival. These tutoring and mentorship programs played pivotal roles in acclimating Black students to life at Dartmouth.
"This concern also contributed to the increased diversity of independent schools in the 1960s; however, research has mostly focused on independent schools outside of the South, especially on the students who participated in programs such as A Better Chance (ABC), which recruited, prepared, and supported African American students enrolling in elite independent schools."
- Purdy
Culture Shock!
Aside from realizing that many other students at Dartmouth did not share the same background as her, being in the third class of women after coeducation made Ricki Fairley's experience quite a unique one.
Coming from an academic background where she was the only Black Student at an all-girls' school, Dartmouth was one of the first places that Ms. Fairley had the opportunity to learn with other Black students and be taught by Black Professors. Unlike other many of the other students who came from educational backgrounds where they learned from and with people who looked like them and were unsatisfied by the homogeneity of Dartmouth, Hanover brought Ricki Fairley the most diversity she had ever experienced at that point of her life.
"But frankly, I was around more black people in school at Dartmouth than I was in high school because I went to all white, all girl school. I had way more diversity in Hanover."
In addition to this newfound diversity, Ms. Fairley was initially taken aback by her new daily routine! Attending Catholic school her whole life, she did not know what life was like when not wearing a uniform. Though she initially struggled to decide what to wear and how to do her hair on her own, she eventually came to understand her newfound freedom of expression.
"I had never worn clothes to school, I had worn uniforms my whole life and so I had an 8 o'clock class. I'd be like, it's 7:30 in the morning, like, oh my God, like I have to figure out what to wear because there's gonna be boys in the class!"
Finding herself in a class with boys was also a new experience for her. Ms. Fairley often found herself having to stand up to White men who were not always the nicest to her. She said this did not phase her because she had attended an all-girls' school and was taught what it meant to be a strong woman.
"I was quite often the only Black in class, the only woman in class. I think that made me outspoken. I never really had a problem with being outspoken, but I think the one thing about going to an all girls' school is that you're told you're a badass from birth and they make you a badass."
The Girls in #304
Ms. Fairley describes her experience as "very Black" and one that she loved. She recounts her time on the "totally hot" Black-led Cheerleading team, being a part of BUTA [Black Undergraduate Theatre Association], and spending time with her roommates, Victoria Stewart '78 and Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney '78, who are her "friends for life."
Though all of her years of going to all-girls' schools have likely allowed Ms. Fairley to foster some sense of sisterhood in the communities that she was in, there is nothing like a Black sisterhood. To share a space with people who can see the world through a similar lens to yours is a truly unique experience. Having her "very Black" experiences with her "friends for life" was a first for Ms. Fairley and greatly contributes to why, to this day, she says, "I had the best time."
"Yeah, they're my besties. They are my friends for life."
Organizing on Campus
In Upending the Ivory Tower: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Ivy League, Stefan M. Bradley touches on the unique experience of organizing on the campus of Dartmouth.
Unlike Black student movements on the campuses of Columbia University and Cornell University, which were considered to be "more radical" with armed students on the front lines, organizing members of the Dartmouth community typically necessitated a different, but still effective approach. This included taking direct action to contact people in positions of power both on and off campus.
Ms. Fairley recounted that people usually felt empowered to fight for the things they wanted to see on campus and in the world. She remembers being particularly inspired by Black women like Judy Redding '76, a co-author of "The Redding Report," who led a movement against The Dartmouth newspaper, which had a reputation of being racist, with sit-ins and various other forms of activism. Following the lead of Judy Redding, Ms. Fairley eventually came to understand that she was present for a momentous time in history. Not only were these major movements happening on campus, but they were being led by Black women.
