Hundreds celebrate historic moment as university names classroom building after one of the 'First Five'
Duke pioneer Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke opened heavy doors as a student, said Duke President Vincent Price. Now some of those doors will open to a West Campus classroom building named in her honor.
Price was speaking at a Sept. 24 ceremony to dedicate the Sociology-Psychology Building for the late Reuben-Cooke ’67, one of the university’s first five Black undergraduates at Duke.
“For four decades after this building opened, only white students could take classes here. Only white students passed through this doorway and into these halls,” Price said. “That changed in 1963 when Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke and four Black undergraduate classmates arrived at Duke.” Learn more and watch here.