"I was a Co-ed": Coeducation in Dickinson's Prep School

In her memoir recounting her time at Dickinson, Elizabeth Low remembers her early days as a female student in the Preparatory School. She explained that there was little hostitlity toward female students in the Prep School. She explains that "There was not co-ed problem in the Prep. The boys made no distinction. Had we been refused admission to the society, we would have taken English in class." According to Low, however, black students were not affroded the same acceptance as white female students. She remembers an instance in which a young black man, the son of a janitor at Dickinson College, was not admitted to the class society. Low recalls one female student explaining that the class meetings were, "our social hour."