Velma Fern Bell Hamilton : Education and Integration : Thought, Word and Deed

Abstract

The life of educator Velma Bell Hamilton encompassed nearly a century of change. Her family's migration from her birthplace, Pontotac, Mississippi to Beloit, Wisconsin in the early part of the century later formed the basis for Hamilton's thesis at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. The 1933 Master's thesis titled "A Comparison of the Negro Population of Beloit and Madison," addresses the topic of "social adjustment among groups in a period of great financial stress, and the question of the peculiar social function, if any, of each particular group." The stated outcome is that "this will be a valuable index for predicting the permanence of this latest increment to the Wisconsin population." The topic of the thesis would serve as a precursor to the passion of Hamilton's life: her belief in African American social adjustment and the role education could have. Hamilton would actively address the topic of African American social adjustment, the influence of education and cultural integration throughout her life in the tradition of the African American orators and writers of her day and whose intellectual example became sources of inspiration for her own speeches and writing from the late 1920s until long past her retirement from teaching in the late 1990s. An examination of Hamilton's body of work in her writing and speeches and its connection and contribution to the greater body of African American oratorical tradition is the focus of this paper.