 My mother and my aunt were extremely humble people, and they did what they did because they believed it was right, not because they believed they were special. My mother was Winifred Parker White. She was the younger of the two Parker sisters. My mother and my aunt were together since they were infants. They were only just over a year apart, and so they went through all of their schooling together almost like you would see the growth of twins. It was not an option that my mother and aunt would not go to college. It actually all started with my grandfather. My grandfather, Frederick Parker, realized that education was the great equalizer, that when you are in the classroom learning together, it goes beyond your skin color, because when you walk out of that room taking the same exam, you realize you are equals, and you can't let anybody ever take that away from you. And so Purdue was one that they knew of. My mother wanted to pursue the sciences, and my aunt wanted to pursue home economics, and so Purdue was the school. You have to remember in the 1940s and 1950s, the state schools actually had been integrated since the early 1900s, but the reality is even though they were integrated in admissions processes, they were not integrated in their social environment. What happened at Purdue is that all black people lived not in the dorm on campus, not in West Lafayette. They lived in Lafayette because black people were not allowed to live in West Lafayette. So many of them traveled across the bridge down to 18th Street, which was the historical black neighborhood. These individuals had a sense of isolation. There were not many African-American students enrolled at Purdue University in the 1940s. They probably didn't have a sense of belonging on the university campus, and that was even amplified even more because they didn't have access to some of the same services that other students had, something as simple as living in the residence hall. And so from the mind frame of my grandfather, you saw that they were admitted into Purdue, but yet they weren't. They went ahead and they went to school, but while they were in school doing this commute, my grandfather took it upon himself to write to and talk to the president of the college. The president said, we don't have enough room for you. So at that point in time, my grandfather knew he was going to have to find another channel. Their father was very active in the civil rights movement. He was friends with thorough good martial and had been involved in some previous litigation against other colleges and universities relative to access issues. So he decided to go back and appeal to the governor who he had spoken with in the past, and he wrote letters to the governor and said, I followed all the procedures. My daughters have been admitted, but they are not a part of full admissions to Purdue. And they were able to get the governor to reach back to Purdue and say, you have to integrate the dorms. And by their second semester, they were allowed to move into the dorms. When we think about opportunities and we think about access to education, you really want to think about it in the sense that an experience of interacting with students and faculty on equal levels as they grow and learn in each one of their environments is really what education is about. And so what Purdue did by integrating the dorms actually opened a whole another world, not just for black people, but it opened the world for all the white women that were living in their dorms. They got to demystify getting to know black women. They walked away going, I can actually see them as people. So access is not just about making a way for black people. It's making a way for the world to appreciate the diversity that exists within all of us. So we all grow. We all suffer when access is denied. To me, part of your education is what you learn by interacting with people from all sorts of backgrounds within the residence halls. And I learned a lot from the people that I met in living in Wiley and making lifelong friends. I feel extremely grateful, extremely honored, and I only had one wish, and that is that my sister would have been here with me. When Ms. Frida Parker returned for our 50th anniversary celebration, she talked about how she educated her children and she educated her children here at Purdue University. So even though she was in a hostile and an intimidating environment, she still saw the value of education and she inspired her own children, as well as the students that she taught in the classroom to come to Purdue University. After her passing, there was tremendous interest by alumni and friends of the family. We need to do something special for these sisters because of the significant contributions that they have made. Processed for the renaming of the Parker Hall began as a result of the Equity Task Force and they voted on it at one of the Board of Trustees meeting and as a result, we're here today to celebrate the unveiling of the Parker Hall. There are some things I just keep encountering them in life which just plainly are meant to be and today's one of those days, at least in my mind. I love everything about this whole story, this whole occasion. I certainly love what a family story it is. It just really hit home for me. Being a person of color on campus, I think it's important to acknowledge that change was made for color people to be in the housing. The renaming of Parker Residence Hall is a monumental leap for Purdue University. It represents a symbolic sense of belonging. The fact that it's a residence hall is just incredible, incredible because Frida Parker was an educator teaching, empowering the youth to go on to higher education. That was her life. Her sister was a microbiologist and you think about Purdue University and its commitment to the STEM fields. The residence hall is a place where people live and learn and so it just makes beautiful sense to me personally that it was indeed a residence hall that their name is graced upon. It definitely gives me more comfort within the higher-ups of the university because it shows that they're listening and it shows that they're also looking for change because if they know that they have the power to make these kind of decisions and they're deciding to make this monumental change, I think it's very comforting. It's important to have images that reflect your culture and heritage. The Parker Hall will do that for our African-American students. For those white students and other students who are not of African descent, it will also provide an opportunity for them to learn more about the American story. I hope that current and future students know that the family took major strides to get where we're at today and I think it's important to acknowledge those steps and be able to see if we can go a step further, you know, make different changes on campus so that we will be able to make history like they did. I hope that they take away from learning about my mom and my aunt that it's okay to be different. It's okay to be scared but the beauty is you've got to have a vision for where you need to be. And my mother and my aunt always had the vision that they were moving on to do bigger and better things and they weren't going to let a single policy stop them. I hope that the students in that dorm can see a little bit of themselves in them, not just black women, all women. I hope they feel the energy of I can do this. I can make it here at Purdue. I can make a difference in the world.