The Mary Jane Legacy Project (MJLP) is the first nationwide examination of Black women’s postsecondary and post-baccalaureate pathways and the first national archive capturing these experiences from a wide array of Black women. The MJLP name honors Mary Jane Patterson, the first Black woman to receive a bachelor’s degree in the United States.
The project will not only focus on Black women who took traditional routes to college immediately following high school, but will also shed light on the diversity among Black women who interact with postsecondary institutions including, but not limited to, re-entry women, justice-involved women, community college attendees, transwomen, and adult learners, in an effort to disrupt monolithic notions of Black women’s degree attainment and post-baccalaureate experiences.
MJLP will also be the first to examine Black women’s postsecondary trajectories across various institutional types (e.g., 2- and 4-year colleges, HBCUs, for-profit, single-gender, etc.) and explore how their experiences at these institutions shaped their lives, particularly their careers and economic status post-graduation.
Mary Jane’s Legacy Project is supported by the Lumina Foundation for Education Racial Justice and Equity Fund and hosted at The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology.