The late Mary Jean Price Walls, who as a woman of color was denied entry to Missouri State University in the 1950s, has been honored with a historical marker celebrating her place on the Springfield-Greene County African American Heritage Trail.

The marker is located outside the Plaster Student Union, just west of Siceluff Hall.

Many members of the campus and Springfield communities gathered for a dedication ceremony at the Mary Jean Price Walls Multicultural Center August 21. The marker was unveiled immediately after.

Walls received an honorary undergraduate degree from Missouri State in 2010. The university later named the Multicultural Resource Center in her honor in 2016.

Walls died July 6, 2020.

Celebrating the contributions of people of color

According to the organization’s website, Heritage Trail members work to recognize contributions people of African descent have made to local history. As part of that mission, the organization places physical markers at key historical locations throughout Springfield and Greene County.

Heritage Trail sites include the Sherman Avenue Corridor, Lincoln Cemetery, Miss Alberta’s Hotel, Silver Spring Park, the Downtown Square and Lincoln High School. Other important sites include Springfield’s historic black churches, such as Washington Avenue Baptist Church, Benton Avenue AME Church, Pitts Chapel United Methodist and Gibson Chapel Presbyterian Church.

According to Dr. Lyle Foster, Walls’ marker is the first Heritage Trail marker on the Missouri State campus. Foster is a Heritage Trail committee member and associate professor of sociology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology.

Plans are in the works to recognize Missouri State’s Kentwood Hall next, Foster said.

“What we know as Kentwood Hall [is that] it played a role in the effort to desegregate public facilities in the city of Springfield,” he explained. “The story will help shed light on the effort to make public spaces available for everyone.”

Lengthy and involved process to finalize marker

Foster said it took about nine months to finalize the plans for Walls’ marker. Among other things, the committee had to solicit bids for fabrication and installation and review proofing layouts.

In addition, the process involved developing the marker’s message, Foster explained. The committee had to determine what message best represented the story.

“What is the message we are seeking to convey?” Foster asked. “What is the story? How does it speak to the history of the African American community?”

Missouri State’s emeritus president Clif Smart and his wife, Gail, provided the majority of funding for the marker, Foster said. Additional support came from grant and community funding.

“The marker costs have gone up since the initial ones [and] are now over $6,000,” Foster said.

Walls’ story a “powerful” lesson

Walls’ story is powerful, Foster noted, and he believes the marker extends equally powerful lessons.

“It is a teaching moment [in] that your current situation is not your future location,” he said.

“By [the marker] being located in such a prominent position on campus, we hope our community members will read her story and learn from it,” Foster added. “One take away might simply be the power of an education to change a life.”

Foster said the occasion provides an opportunity to focus on Missouri State’s commitment to “first generation” students as well.

“Our university takes some pride in having a substantial number of students who are first generation,” he said. “We can think about the power of an education to change the trajectory of a generation. What might have changed if Ms. Walls could have come to Southwest Missouri State?”

“As a sociologist, I teach that education is the most effective way to break the cycle of poverty. The opportunity needs to be available for everyone,” Foster added.

Speaking to the fundamentals of society

Describing Walls’ experience as an “overcoming story,” Foster added that her example “speaks to the fundamentals of a society.”

“There are, of course, the lessons of segregation and civil rights, desegregation and the history of race in our nation,” Foster said. “We didn’t choose what race we would be born.”

“[But] it is also an overcoming story because her story came to light, and she received an honorary degree many years later and her son went here and got a degree,” he added.

“How powerful is that?”

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Photo credits: Angela J. Barker unless otherwise indicated.