Breaking Barriers: A Conversation with Irene Smalls on Black Empowerment and Leadership
For this podcast project, I had the privilege of interviewing Mrs. Irene Smalls. She is a remarkable woman who has achieved so much throughout her life, from founding Wari House in 1968 to serving as the founder and first president of both the Cornell Black Alumni Association and the New England Women’s Leadership Council. In addition to her political leadership roles, Mrs. Smalls has made significant contributions to education and visibility for the Black community, both as one of the first natural hair models for AfroSheen and as a lifelong children’s author. She is currently working on an initiative called Literacise, which focuses on neuroscience research that connects movement and learning to enhance literacy education.
During our interview, I asked Mrs. Smalls about her legacy of work in political activism. She spoke passionately about how her upbringing in Harlem, NY, instilled in her a strong sense of confidence as a Black woman. She had a lot of strong messages that Black was beautiful which made her extremely passionate about creating spaces for Black joy at Cornell during a time when there was heavy blatant discrimination and racism. One of the ways she contributed to the legacy of Black activism at Cornell was by founding an all-Black women’s house named Wanawake Wa Wari. She spoke about how radical this work was by educating me a little about the history of housing discrimination against Black women on campus.
Mrs. Smalls shared with me that housing for Black women at Cornell was often contingent on the levels of racism within the administration. For instance, during the tenure of President Livingston Farrand from 1921 to 1937, Black women were denied housing at Cornell altogether. Dr. Margaret Cornelia Morgan Lawrence, who attended Cornell from 1932 to 1936, was forced to work as a servant for a wealthy White family in Ithaca to find housing. When Mrs. Smalls arrived at Cornell from 1967 to 1971, she encountered several incidents that spurred her activism, such as when Black women living in an all-women’s dorm were falsely accused of drug use by White women who smelled them straightening their hair. Another incident involved a Black woman who was at risk of expulsion and was hospitalized for being deemed “mentally unfit and inferior” based on the evaluation of a White male psychologist. These incidents were crucial in inspiring Mrs. Smalls to found Wari House as a safe space for Black women on campus. Given this history and the precipitating incidents that led to the house’s creation, Mrs. Smalls’ actions were monumental in shaping the narrative of Black history and activism at Cornell.
Speaking with Mrs. Smalls was a life-changing experience for me. Her words still resonate with me, particularly when she said, “You are at Cornell but you are not of Cornell.” Her saying that and hearing more about her work reminded me of the narrative we are fed that we should be exceedingly grateful to even be at Cornell and therefore don’t deserve to ask for more than what’s given to us. Her quote reminded me that we are all qualified to be here, and we should not feel grateful to the point of not asking to be taken care of in the spaces we occupy. Mrs. Smalls and so many others have done tremendous work on the Cornell campus to ensure that Black people have safe spaces. We are part of that legacy and we can go so much further.
Image Citation:
“Irene Smalls’s Page.” NEActor, neactor.com/profile/IRENESMALLS. Accessed 12 May 2023.