Teaching Experiences at Oberlin Conservatory: "My appointment with tenure was the first made to a Black woman in 146 years"
Frances Walker-Slocum began teaching at Oberlin Conservatory as a visiting professor in the Fall of 1976. Oberlin approached her to offer this position after she performed her 1975 Carnegie Hall program at Oberlin on January 6th, 1976. Oberlin presents a narrative that Walker-Slocum’s “performance so moved administrators that she was hired on the spot to teach that Fall” (Burnett). She was offered the position, but the motivation behind her employment is less whimsical than the Oberlin administration presents. Walker-Slocum stated in her autobiography, A Miraculous Journey, that she believed she was hired to “counteract Doris [Mayes’] suit against the college” (Walker-Slocum 143).
Doris Mayes was the first Black woman to be hired in the Oberlin Conservatory Voice Department and she was an assistant professor of singing from 1968 until she did not gain tenure and reappointment in 1973 and was ultimately fired in 1974. As reported in The Oberlin Review, Doris Mayes sued Oberlin College in 1977 for “unlawful discrimination against her on the basis of sex and race” (Maier). Although Mayes sued the College after Walker-Slocum’s appointment, it is likely that she, and Oberlin College, knew of the allegations Mayes had against the College surrounding her firing. In her autobiography, Walker-Slocum claimed that then College President, Emil Danenberg, told her soon after her hiring that, “When [Doris Mayes’s] case comes up in court, we want to be able to tell them that we have someone here like Frances Walker!” (Walker-Slocum 143). In a document found in the Oberlin College Archives, the Oberlin administration wrote they hired Walker-Slocum with the expectation that she would reestablish a “love affair between Oberlin and music and blacks” (Baumann 151). This statement is not echoed in the current narrative told by the College of Frances Walker-Slocum’s hiring and what happened behind closed doors may never be known. In the Fall of 1978, Doris Mayes received a $7,500 settlement from Oberlin College four days before the case was scheduled to go to trial. President Danenberg classified the money as a “nuisance settlement” to “terminate the situation” (Haessly). Though the situation around Walker-Slocum’s teaching career beginnings are not fairy-tale-perfect, she framed her arrival with, “my coming to Oberlin benefited the College and realized a dream which I had not even dreamed” (Walker-Slocum 143).
Frances Walker-Slocum began teaching at Oberlin in the Fall of 1976 commuting between Oberlin, OH and her home in New York City, where she had been living while teaching at Rutgers University. She had a more rigorous teaching schedule compared to her coursework at other institutions. She was responsible for teaching lessons, facilitating weekly performance classes, attending meetings, and auditioning prospective students. In 1976, there were not many Black professors in the Conservatory, and there was still clear racism present among the students and faculty. Walker-Slocum relied on the guidance of Wendell Logan, jazz performer and composer, who had worked at Oberlin Conservatory since 1973. He was the founding member of the Oberlin Conservatory Jazz Department in 1989. Reflecting on the racism present in the Conservatory during her first years, Walker-Slocum wrote “To put it mildly, everyone was stunned when he or she opened the door to my studio… If students were unsure of me at first they usually fell in line after two weeks. Some changed studios right away, others after a semester, which was very hurtful” (Walker-Slocum 149). For the students who stayed, it quickly became clear to them that Professor Walker was serious about technique and the piano as a craft. She had a reputation of being strict to her students and was clear about her “dedication to the high standards of the Conservatory” (Walker-Slocum 155).
Despite her high reputation among some in the Conservatory, others showed their racism; some students gave flippant excuses for leaving her studio, colleagues did not inviting her to perform and did not inviting her to teach at special events, and also created “deliberate attempt[s] to demean me before the students” (Walker-Slocum 158). In the present day, Oberlin College and Conservatory still does not have a high percentage of Black students. In the class of 2023, only 26% of students are students of color (Oberlin College). Although her moments of experiencing racism and sexism mark her career at Oberlin, Walker-Slocum had many moments of triumph and success that also mark her early years. In 1977, Walker-Slocum was invited to play a symphony at Carnegie Hall and collaborated with the conductor, Everett Lee, to create a successful concert. In that same year, she performed a concert at Oberlin where she worried that people would doubt her skill in “performing the Europeans [music] notwithstanding the fact that those were the composers I had mostly performed” because of her well-known interest in the music of Black composers (Walker-Slocum 148). In her autobiography, Walker-Slocum highlighted that for her birthday, her students surprised her by decorating her office, noting that while she had won over some of the students, she still did not have most of the faculty on her side.
Walker-Slocum began teaching at Oberlin on a one-year contract, and had that appointment renewed twice before a search began to find her replacement. She wrote about that period, “the Conservatory had a search going on for my position because they said affirmative action decreed that they open the field up to minorities and women. They didn’t seem to be aware that they had all the law required in me” (Walker Slocum 162). Eventually their search lead them back to Walker-Slocum. In her tenure recommendation, Dean David Boe wrote:
“The recommendation of [Frances Walker-Slocum’s] appointment with tenure recognizes the high quality of her playing and teaching and her accumulated years of experience teaching both at Oberlin and other institutions. She brings to her position here a wealth of experience as a performing artist of stature. Because of her close identification with the Black community at Oberlin and the excellent rapport that she has established with minority students both within and outside of her studio, her presence adds a valuable dimension to the Conservatory faculty.” (Boe)
Frances Walker-Slocum was awarded tenured in 1979. Reflecting on her moment gaining tenure, Walker-Slocum wrote “I noticed for the first time a sign [in Tappan Square] signifying that the College had been founded in 1833. Certainly there were hundreds of hirings during this period and yet my appointment with tenure was the first made to a Black woman in 146 years! What a sad record for a supposedly liberal College” (Walker-Slocum 164). Other prestigious colleges, such as Harvard University, first awarded tenure to a Black women professor, Eileen Southern, a musicologist, in 1976, 340 years after the founding of the college. Kenyon College first awarded tenure to a Black women professor, Marla Kohlman, a professor of sociology, in 2005, 181 years after the college’s founding. Although Oberlin’s timeline of giving a Black women professor tenure was faster than the aforementioned colleges, a large majority of the College’s existence was without a Black women tenured professor, and this disparity was not forgotten by Frances Walker-Slocum.
This document is a letter from Oberlin College and Conservatory President, S. Fredrick Starr to Frances Walker-Slocum in 1991. It was written to apologize for missing a dinner in Walker-Slocum’s honor, celebrating her retirement. In the letter, Starr expressed his congratulations for “absolute superb teaching over the many years” and complimented her for being a “subtle interpreter of an exceptionally broad range of music.” He was likely referring to her versatility in exceptionally performing classical music by white European composers and more contemporary music by Black American composers. Starr highlighted in this letter Walker-Slocum’s “raw strength and graceful forbearance” with how she conducted herself as the first tenured Black female professor at the 158-year-old Oberlin College. He noted “You have shared your frustrations with me in this, but I hope you feel the experience as a whole has been positive.” He concluded with “the College as a whole has grown from your presence here.” Frances Walker-Slocum’s experiences teaching at Oberlin Conservatory were not all pleasant. She had to deal with systemic sexism and racism each step of the way in her teaching career, but she also carved the path for students of color to have a place in the Conservatory.
After her retirement in 1991, Walker-Slocum continued to support students through her scholarship, the Walker-Slocum Scholarship for Viola/Piano, which goes to support Black students in the Conservatory, and her monetary support of the Sphinx program, which provides support for young artists of color to promote diversity in the arts. Frances Walker-Slocum continued to live in Oberlin after her retirement and was a fixture in the Conservatory. Her last public appearance was in March 2018, to celebrate her 94th birthday and watch the premiere of a short documentary about her, Still Dreaming. President Carmen Twillie Ambar, the first Black women President of Oberlin College (appointed in 2017), hosted a post-premiere reception. Frances Walker-Slocum died later that year on June 9th, 2018 in her home in Oberlin, OH.
Works Cited
Baumann, Roland M. Constructing Black Education at Oberlin College A Documentary History. Ohio University Press, 2010.
Boe, David. “Frances Walker: Associate Professor of Pianoforte.” Frances Walker Slocum Papers, RG 30/222, Box 1, O. C. A., 29 May 1979, Oberlin, OH.
Burnett, Erich. “Trailblazing Piano Professor Frances Walker '45 Dies at 94.” Oberlin College and Conservatory, 12 Feb. 2019, www.oberlin.edu/news/trailblazing-piano-professor-frances-walker-45-dies-94.
“Class of 2023 Profile.” Oberlin College and Conservatory, 22 Aug. 2019, www.oberlin.edu/admissions-and-aid/class-profile.
Haessly, Lynn. “Ex-Teacher Gets $7,500 from College in Settlement.” The Oberlin Review, 14 Nov. 1978, pp. 1–6, http://dcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15963coll9/id/5316.
Maier, Scott. “College to Contest Fired Prof's Bias Suit.” The Oberlin Review, 13 May 1977, pp. 1–1, dcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15963coll9/id/4700http://dcollections.oberlin.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15963coll9/id/4700.
Walker-Slocum, Frances. A Miraculous Journey. Author House, 2006.