Connections Murals Public Art Project
THE COLLEGE GRADUATE

Mural Location:
Grinnell Arts Center, 926 Broad St
West wall

Grinnell College graduation photo of Edith Renfrow Smith (b. 1914), the first Black woman to graduate from Grinnell College, 1937.

Edith was born in Grinnell to Eva Craig and Lee Augustus Renfrow, the fifth of six children. Her grandparents were born into slavery, and her grandfather George Craig traveled with famed abolitionist John Brown as he traveled through Grinnell in 1859. Edith attended Davis Elementary School and Grinnell High School, playing intramural sports such as basketball and volleyball. After high school, she attended Grinnell College and became the first Black woman to graduate from the institution in 1937. She earned her Masters degree and went on to a long career in education, as well as dedicating many years of service to her community. Edith has been inducted into the Grinnell High School Alumni Hall of Fame, Black Educators Hall of Fame, the Chicago Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and the Iowa African American Hall of Fame.

Edith celebrated her 110th birthday in 2024. With the seemingly simple act of attending her hometown college, as Edith had always hoped to do, she made history in a pre-Civil Rights era and paved the way for generations to come. Many Black women have followed in her footsteps to graduate from Grinnell College, and the institution named its newest residence hall in her honor in 2024.

A project of the Grinnell Area Arts Council.

A special thank you to the Grinnell Area Arts Council for hosting this mural.
Thank you to Monique Shore for her collaboration and support of this project.

Support for this project is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority, as well as by Grinnell College, the City of Grinnell, Friends of Drake Community Library, Drake Community Library and Grin Cupola.