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African Americans civil rights Civil Rights Movement community Otis Singletary Sit-ins Tate Street Woman's College

WC Students, Tate Street, and Desegregation in 1963

While the February 1960 sit-in at Greensboro’s F.W. Woolworth store downtown is well known, fewer people are knowledgeable about a second round of protests that escalated in Greensboro in the Spring of 1963. A number of Woman’s College (WC) students participated in the 1960 sit-ins, but the 1963 movement hit the students of WC a […]

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campus traditions fraternities literary societies sororities

Fraternities and sororities at UNCG

Prior to the founding of the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) in 1891, Charles Duncan McIver was very supportive of the notion of societies for the female students.  In 1893, the Adelphian and Cornelian became the first two literary societies on campus and almost all of the […]

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May Day Celebrations on Campus

May Pole Dancers, 1916 The tradition of celebrating May Day can be traced back to the pre-Christian era when the first day of May marked the end of winter in Northern Europe.  Rituals celebrated fertility and the planting of new crops with gathering flowers, dancing around a tall pole, and crowning a queen.  Traditions such […]

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campus traditions community Yum Yum

Beating the Heat at Yum Yum

The warmer weather of spring brings out birds and flowers — and a need for ice cream! At UNCG, for over 90 years, students, faculty, and staff have been able to beat the heat with a tasty cone from the Yum Yum ice cream shop. The original site of Yum Yum, with construction on the […]

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Class Jackets Class Traditions Greensboro Sit-ins UNCG

The History of Class Jackets at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Leather Class Jacket, 1 The tradition of class jackets made its debut at the North Carolina College for Women (now UNCG) in the late 1920s. Before the jackets became popular, the girls wore hats and sweaters in the class colors of green, red, blue, and lavender.  This color scheme would be a continuing tradition with […]

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Consolidated University Minerva University seal

Origin of a Goddess: Minerva on the Consolidated University era seal

During the period of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (1931-1971), a seal for the Woman’s College of the University of North Carolina (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) appeared featuring an image of Minerva quite different from those previously used for the school’s seal. Letterhead from Consolidated University period The seal appeared […]

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Dr. Anna Gove Dr. Miriam Bitting Physical Culture State Normal and Industrial School

Physical Culture at State Normal

Dr. Miriam Bitting A founding department at the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) was the Department of Physiology and Health (also known as Physical Culture). This unit had two objectives: instruction in hygiene and creation an individualized program of exercise for students. Work in the department included gymnastics, calisthenics, and exercises that were […]

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Caesar Cone Pearl Eugenia Wyche State Normal and Industrial School typhoid

Pearl Eugenia Wyche, class of 1903

Pearl Eugenia Wyche, born in 1878 in Vance County, North Carolina, attended the State Normal and Industrial School for Women (which is now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) from 1897-1903. During her time at the Normal School, she had some unique work and social experiences which separated her from her classmates. She served […]

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Minerva University seal

The Many Faces of Minerva

1894 Minerva has been with the university almost since its inception, but her image has undergone many transformations during her tenure as UNCG’s representative goddess.  The first extant image appears on an 1894 diploma.  Indeed, many of the very early images we have of Minerva come from diplomas bearing the university seal. 1897 The next seal, […]

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African Americans Charles D. McIver Ezekiel Robinson founding

Ezekiel “Zeke” Robinson

Robinson with the college’s horse and buggy When the doors opened at the State Normal and Industrial School (now UNCG) on October 5, 1892, school president Charles Duncan McIver had 15 well-qualified faculty members and nearly 200 young female students. While cooks, janitors, handymen, and others worked behind the scenes to keep the school running, […]

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