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P U RDU E U N I VE RS I T Y
forcing the sisters to instead live in a boarding
house in Lafayette. Housing was segregated
entirely in 1946 at Purdue and in the city of
West Lafayette.
Their daily commute to and from campus
forced the sisters to miss out on social and educational opportunities that resident students
routinely enjoyed—an unreasonable outcome
for the offspring of a family of educators. Fred
Parker, a prominent math teacher at segregated
Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis,
recognized that a quality education is not solely
derived from classroom learning and wanted his
daughters to experience all that Purdue had to
offer. He began a letter-writing campaign while
also mobilizing support from connections in the
state’s Black community.
Among the recipients of Fred Parker’s letters was Indiana Governor Ralph Gates, whom
Parker reminded of Purdue’s rule that all firstyear women must live on campus.
The governor eventually agreed to take up
the family’s cause, and in January 1947, Purdue admitted Fred’s daughters into Bunker Hill
among its first Black residents.
Even after the drama that surrounded their
admittance to the residence halls, the Parker
sisters maintained warm feelings for their alma
mater throughout adulthoods spent educating,
counseling, caretaking, and relentlessly fighting
for equity.
When Frieda passed away in 2020—Winifred
died in 2003, seven years after being diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s disease—the Jefferson family
requested that well-wishers donate to a Purdue
Black Alumni Organization scholarship endowment established in her memory in lieu of flowers.
“She wanted as many people as she could
find to go to Purdue, and a number of them did,”
Ralph Jefferson says.
Frieda worked for more than 50 years in
education, including in the Milwaukee Public
Schools, where she was one of the founding
organizers of the teachers’ union. Beyond her
teaching responsibilities, she also coordinated
child development and day-care programs and
created vocational training programs for the Milwaukee Public Schools.
A microbiologist by Purdue training, Winifred
returned to college in the 1970s and completed
a master’s degree in guidance and counseling
at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She
PURDUEFORLIFE .ORG
spent the remaining years of her professional
life as a career counselor and advocate for people with disabilities and those from underrepresented groups.
PARKER HALLS
At its June 2021 meeting, the Purdue Board of
Trustees formally celebrated the sisters’ legacy
by renaming the Griffin Residence Hall buildings—originally named after the mythical creature on the Purdue seal—as Frieda Parker Hall
and Winifred Parker Hall. They are the first
buildings on Purdue’s campus to be named for
Black alumnae and will serve as reminders of
the courage and tenacity that the sisters displayed at Purdue and in their professional lives
as educators who promoted the advancement of
underrepresented populations.
Winifred’s daughters believe their mother and
aunt’s story of strength, inclusiveness, and positivity can encourage current and future Purdue
students who are struggling to overcome their
own challenges.
“My mother would have been profoundly
happy to think that young women and young
men who doubt their ability or are uncertain as
to whether they belong or whether they could
fulfill their potential could somehow look up at
the name and know that someone else made
it through and that they have responsibility to
keep the world going. She would just be beyond
herself,” White-Faines says.
“Because that’s really what they were about.
It was really a very humble commitment: Get
educated, and do your part to make the world a
better place.” —PURDUE UNIVERSITY
MEET THE
PARKER SISTERS
Ú Learn
more about
the women who
impacted the lives of
generations of
Boilermakers in a
documentary at
purduealumnus.org/
parkerdoc
This story has been condensed.
Read the full story at purduealumnus.org/parker.
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