Dorothy Runner (Finding Aid)

Dorothy Runner

1920 - 2010

Favorite Color: Bright Colors

Favorite Food: Beef and Chicken

Favorite Time of Year: Fall and Spring

Favorite Vacation Spot: Hilton Head

Interview Length: 111 minutes

Interview Date(s): March 17, 2004, March 17, 2003

Interview Location(s): Chicago, Illinois

Abstract

Dorothy Walker Runner has a great time with the word play of her maiden and maried names. The interview opens with her recollections of her parents and grandparents lives in Virginia and West Virginia in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Runner recalls the close-knit black neighborhood she grew up in in nitro and Charleston, West Virginia. It was a time when neighbors could scold misbehaving children with a stren look and reminder they knew who you belonged to. Dorothy Runner details her life growing up in the South in the 1920s and 1930s. In particular, she recalls experiencing Jim Crow segregation on the train on her way to start college at Howard University. Runner continues with more anecdotes about her tenure at Howard University and her mentor, Dr. Howard Thurman. She became interested in early childhood education and decided to pursue graduate study. But because West Virginia colleges did not permit black students to enroll, she attended the University of Chicago. Runner was shocked to find the same racism and predjudice in the north. The university didn't allow black students to stay on campus. The interview closes with her recollections of her academic life and post- academic life in Chicago. Dorothy Runner's passionate interest and professional devotion to early childhood education and the improvement of the lives of America's disadvantaged youth is truly felt in this segment. Runner describes her various interests outside of social work, but a consistent thread of reaching out to children is always at the forefront. She helped inaugurate Black Creativity Month at the Museum of Science and Industry to reach and teach black families and children. She also offers her thoughts on corporal punishment, which she feels is a vestige of slavery and racism. An important goal to her is not only to uplift children, but also to teach their parents how to uplift and encourage their children, rather than discourage their intellectual and emotional development through verbal and physical abuse. As Dorothy Runner enters the middle of her 8th decade, she looks at life with a profound perspective.SHe shares her hopes for urban black youth.Still full of vim, Runner doesn't dwell on what her legacy will be, she is still actively involved in early childhood education.Her life's goal is to help others reach their greatest potential, and Runner's eyes are still on the prize. The segment closes with several photos from her yound adult years and from many of the organizations of which she is a member.

57 Stories (See Ordered Story Set)