Nancy Hooten Garrison

Nancy’s family took advantage of all the upward mobility opportunities Tuskegee had to offer.  Her parents obtained degrees from Tuskegee during the 1940s and 50s.  They bought a new home.  The home was built by Black building tradesmen like her uncle, who had received their diplomas at Tuskegee and who built beautiful new subdivisions in Tuskegee for the new Black middle class.  Her parents were leaders of social and athletic clubs for families in the community.

Nancy writes how obtaining education and educating others took center stage in her family.  Early in the history of the University, Dr. Washington commissioned two of her uncles to establish educational institutes throughout the rural South as part of the Tuskegee Program. Her mother taught rural students in Macon County.  Now, her daughters and grandchildren work in the field of education. At regularly held family reunions, they tell the story of their enslaved great-great-grandparents,------- who laid the foundation for a successful clan.

While Auburn University, just about 20 miles away from her home, had invited Nancy to become one of the first Black students to integrate its campus, a stint in a summer program in an all- White Florida junior college made her realize that fighting racism every day was not how she wanted to spend her college career.

Nancy graduated from Hampton Institute in mathematics, received a NASA fellowship, owned a business, married a military man, and traveled the world.