A new office building in the Glen Lennox community opened last week. It carries the namesake and legacy of the first Black woman to attend UNC, Gwendolyn Harrison Smith.
The grand opening of the Gwendolyn last week is the first building in the redevelopment of the Glen Lennox community. Grubb Properties named the building after Harrison Smith because she was the first Black woman to attend UNC.
The structure will feature more than 100,000 square feet of office space. Executive Director of Grubb Properties, Joe Dye, said this building reflects the values of the company.
“We focused on the three pillars of our redevelopment effort here,” Dye said. “It’s character, culture and community so I think it’s us living our values. We are very honored to have Gwendolyn Harrison Smith’s family with us here today and that we can name the building after her.”
CEO of Grubb Properties, Clay Grubb, said his company purposefully chose to honor somebody who doesn’t get talked about often, but who had tremendous impact on the community.
“The building is just a reminder,” Grubb said. “It’s the story that must be carried on. That’s how history is made through stories and the hope is that this inspires people to tell the story more often.”
At the ribbon cutting, Gwendolyn’s son, Dwight Smith, performed a poem his mother wrote when she was a student at Spellman College.
“If you would have your name flung to the skies, engrave it first upon the hearts of men,” Smith said.
Smith said the poem encompassed the legacy of his mother because it touched on lessons she preached.
“She had like three running themes. She either wrote about God, she wrote about love or she wrote about helping somebody. So, I hope as a result this building will continue to inspire people to be a better person, to help their fellow man and to love and trust God,” Smith said.
Gwendolyn Harrison Smith was a student at UNC in the summer of 1951. She was there to receive her doctorate degree in Spanish. When she stepped foot on campus the university said her acceptance had been rescinded because they did not know Gwendolyn Harrison Smith was Black.
Harrison Smith then teamed up with the North Carolina NAACP to file a lawsuit against the university, which was later dropped when the legal pressure allowed her to attend the university.
N.C. Department of Commerce Chief of Staff, Marqueta Welton, said the story of Harrison Smith serves a reminder of the long struggle Black women have faced at at UNC and nationwide.
“Her story sent a message. It told Black women across the state that speaking out against inequitable and exclusionary treatment is key to changing the status quo,” Welton said. “It also told state leaders that if they continued to ignore Black women as invisible, unimportant or less than, they would be met with good trouble.”
Welton said Gwendolyn was a trailblazer because she fought for justice at the intersection of race and gender. She said that is why it is so important to memorialize her legacy, because it shows we value those difficult conversations.
UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz said the university and Grubb Properties are encouraging those intersectional conversations through the announcement of a new scholarship, the Gwendolyn Harrison Smith Diversity Graduate Student Excellence Fund..
The scholarship funds summer graduate research through a $100,000 endowment from Grubb Properties. It will pay $5,000 annually beginning in 2025 to the UNC College of Arts and Sciences. Guskiewicz said the scholarship will be used to help recruit diverse graduate students to the university.
As the Gwendolyn officially opens its doors to new businesses and clients, it also hopes to promote the values of its namesake. Gwendolyn Harrison Smith now has her name engraved on the building, but also in our hearts.
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