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Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant, Louise R. Noun ’29 Chair in Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies (GWSS), has been awarded a prestigious Franklin Research Grant of $4,500 from the American Philosophical Society. The grant will support Beauboeuf-Lafontant’s research for her book project, You May Call Me Eva P: Portraits of a Willful Black Matriline, 1837-1937.

Beauboeuf-Lafontant’s work delves into the matrilineal history of Edith Renfrow Smith ’37, DHL ‘19, �ֲ���ý���’s first Black woman graduate. The project highlights the often overlooked role of Black women’s oral memory in providing historical insight. A key figure in the project is Eva Pearl Green Francis (1870-1941), a cousin of Renfrow Smith’s mother, a business leader, and a co-founder of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, one of the oldest and largest all-Black communities established after the Civil War.

With the support of the Franklin Research Grant, Beauboeuf will travel to Mississippi to conduct archival research in Mound Bayou and interview memory keepers. These efforts will inform her understanding of how Black women in the Renfrow matriline have worked to align their outer worlds with their inner convictions, breaking ground and shaping communities over the last two centuries.  

�ֲ���ý��� celebrates Beauboeuf-Lafontant’s achievement and looks forward to the contributions her research will make in illuminating the resilience and impact of Black women and their histories.