The Key to the Door

Maurice Apprey is Professor of Psychiatry and Dean of African American Affairs at the University of Virginia. Shelli M. Poe is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Director of Vocation, Ethics, and Society at Millsaps College.

This collection offers a vital, informative history of African American students at the University of Virginia during the early years. The book provides a model for other institutions to follow in documenting and learning from the history of black students on their campuses and in using those lessons as they chart the future. This volume adds to current discussions concerning access, equity, inclusion, and achievement in higher education and is particularly useful for its examination of these questions through the lived experiences of African Americans who attended one of the country's leading public universities." - Walter R. Allen, University of California, Los Angeles, coeditor of Towards a Brighter Tomorrow: College Barriers, Hopes, and Plans of Black, Latino/a, and Asian American Students in California "This volume captures the entwined history of black people and U.Va., including the enslaved people who built it, the black workers who took care of its grounds and its students, the earliest black men and women admitted as students, and the surrounding black community that supported and sustained them. Rarely has an institutional history been so well complemented by such compelling personal narratives. The pursuit of education is an enduring theme in black history, and this book brings that struggle and its successes to life." - Barbara D. Savage, U.Va. Class of '74, University of Pennsylvania, author of Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion