Forgotten Roads: Tuskegee to Montgomery, Women Lead The Way

Jessie Parkhurst Guzman (b. 1898) held several prominent positions at Tuskegee Institute over the course of her career including Director of Records and Research and Dean of Women. She advocated for equal citizenship through her professional research, writing, and publications, and through her decades of work with the Tuskegee Civic Association. 

Image: Jessie Parkhurst Guzman seated at a desk, c. 1940. (Tuskegee University Archives)

Gwen Patton (b. 1943) exemplified the new generation of civil rights leaders in Tuskegee and throughout the nation who were coming into their own in the 1960s. She was an important leader in the Tuskegee student movement, the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League (TIAL), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Black Power movement, and the anti-war movement.

Image: Gwen Patton's Student Body President portrait in the 1966 Tuskeana. (Tuskegee University Archives)