1918
Lucile Berkeley Buchanan
The Great War, Depression and New Deal
Lucile Berkeley Buchanan is known as the first Black woman to graduate from CU, earning a degree in German in 1918. The daughter of emancipated slaves, Buchanan was born in 1884 in Denver. Her family lived on land purchased from P.T. Barnum, the noted circus mogul. She became the first in her family to graduate from not one but two of the state’s top institutions of higher education. In 1905, she was the first Black woman to graduate with a two-year degree from what is now the University of Northern Colorado. After a long career as a school teacher, she lived in Denver until her death in 1989, at the age of 105. Her story was preserved by CU Boulder associate professor of media studies Polly McLean in the book Remembering Lucile: A Virginia Family's Rise from Slavery and a Legacy Forged a Mile High.