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xiii Acknowledgments Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished! —Luke 1:45 Although my name is the only one on the cover of this book, countless individuals have contributed to this project. This book is dedicated to R. J. M. Blackett, my dissertation advisor, mentor, and friend; to Beverly Jarrett, retired director and editor-in-chief of the University of Missouri Press, for her enthusiasm for this project; and in memory of the late historian, Susan Porter Benson , for her unsurpassed example of collegiality and mentoring. So many wonderfully dedicated archivists and librarians have aided me in countless hours of research. I began the research for this book in the Western Historical Manuscripts Collection at the University of Missouri when Ann Morris was the director. I wish to thank Ann and the collection’s current director , William “Zelli” Fischetti, in particular, for introducing me to the League of Women Voters Collection. For their various acts of kindness and support, I also wish to thank Kenneth Thomas, Linda Belford, and my former students who are now manuscript specialists (Susan Beattie and Nancy McIlvaney). I owe a particular debt of gratitude to John Hoover and Charles Brown at the Mercantile Library, especially for the rare photographs they introduced me to that are a part of this book. I obtained other photographs from the Missouri Historical Society and from Princeton University Library, and I thank the archivists at both institutions for their expeditious service. I give a special offering of gratitude to Sonya Roony and Miranda Rectenwald at the University Archives at Washington University for their last-minute assistance with a Franklin Neighborhood Association flyer. I am fortunate to be married to a librarian , Christopher C. White, whom I thank for discovering the papers of St. xiv Acknowledgments Louis University Medical School Dean Schwitala in the basement of the institution ’s Health Sciences Center Library. I’d like to thank my colleagues in the History Department for various forms of support I have received over the years. Two years ago, Deborah Cohen assumed the role of midwife for this book and did more than almost anyone to inspire in me the courage and focus needed to get it done. I’d also like to thank my departmental colleague Laura Westhoff and Dennis Lubeck, director of the International Education Consortium (IEC) with the Cooperating School Districts , for giving me the opportunity over the years to discuss my work with middle and high school educators. A community of scholars have read and commented on parts of this manuscript or simply encouraged me to see it through to completion. In particular, I wish to thank James Anderson, Darlene Clark Hine, Kenneth Hamilton,Antonio Holland, Clarence Lang, Kimberly Phillips, and Francille R. Wilson. Some years ago, Elsa Barkley Brown commented on a conference paper I gave on the League of Women Voters of St. Louis. Thank you, Elsa, for admonishing me to find out the source of white leaguers’ interests in having black women join the league. I owe the greatest debt of gratitude, however, to George Lipsitz, who selflessly gave of his time, energy, and intellect to critique the manuscript at a time when I really needed confirmation regarding substance of my ideas. My dear friend, Indiana University graduate school classmate, and one of the smartest historians I know, Earline Rae Ferguson, probably knows almost as much about the subject of this book as I do because of the years worth of phone conservations we have shared talking about my “St. Louis folks” and her “Indiana women.” Rae, don’t forget our pact. During the fall semester of 2007, I taught in the History Department at the University of Ghana—Legon, where I met the most wonderful colleagues and students. Ghana provided a wellspring of inspiration for my writing, freeing me from the daily distractions in the U.S. which masquerade as conveniences. Kofi Baku, I owe you an email and a phone call! While in Ghana, I also made new U.S. friends, among my most cherished, though neglected since our return to the states—historian Randall Jelks, his,wife Mari Beth, and his mother-in-law, Jeanne Johnson. I could not have asked for a more efficient, smarter, more encouraging copyeditor than Pippa Letsky. She reopened the door of this manuscript so that I could enter it once again. I wish to thank the entire staff of the University of Missouri Press for the...

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