E-mail correspondence between Spencie Love and Yonni Chapman regarding the Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award, January 8, 2006
The Cornelia Phillips Spencer Bell Award, awarded annually from 1994 to 2004, was the highest accolade that could be given to a female student at the University. However, John Kenyon Chapman, a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill, led a campaign in 2004 to disband the Bell Award, due to Cornelia Spencer’s blatant sexism and racism. This email exchange between Chapman and Spencie Love, Spencer’s great-granddaughter, reveals these tensions between legacy and the future of gender and race relations on campus.