An Interview with Eileen Cave
My interview with Ms. Cave, who attended Dartmouth from 1972 to 1976, began with the two of us discussing her childhood in Brooklyn. I learned that she had experienced what she called a “very interesting contrast of experiences,” including going outside of the city to go fishing and playing games like stoop ball in her neighborhood. We discussed her time at Dartmouth, which included her becoming the Afro-American Society’s first female president and writing a piece called “Institutional Racism and Student Life at Dartmouth'' with classmates Monica Hargrove and Judi Redding. I learned more about the connections that the Black community formed on campus. She made it clear that the community was not only limited to students, but faculty members like Errol Hill, Dartmouth’s first Black professor to receive tenure, and alumni like Fritz Alexander, who was involved in creating the Black Alumni at Dartmouth Association (BADA). Towards the end of the interview, we began going over Ms. Cave’s life since leaving Dartmouth, which included working for American Airlines, pursuing her passion by creating and teaching art in Hyattsville, Maryland, and travelling to several different countries across the world. Ms. Cave is set to retire as a teacher in July 2022, after which she plans to continue painting and travelling while spending time with her family.
