Item Information
Title
Sharon Rose Powell, class of 1968, from a 1989 interview
Description
Sharon Rose Powell, class of 1968, from a 1989 interview describing her experience as a Jewish female student. Performed by Elizabeth Corley Megel.
Creator
PlayMaker’s Repertory Company in collaboration with the University Archives at Louis Round Wilson Library
Source
Interview with Sharon Rose Powell by Pamela Dean, 20 June 1989 L-0041, in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Series L: University of North Carolina, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04007L/
Date
2021
Language
English
Identifier
https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/items/show/7582
Transcription
Sharon Rose Powell, class of 1968.
I remember Dean Carmichael saying to me quite early in that whole process, "You really ought to look at Kappa Kappa Gamma." I said, "Well, Dean Carmichael, I'm going to look at all the sororities. I haven't made up my mind." She kept saying over and over, "But Sharon, you really you ought to look at Kappa Kappa Gamma." That's all she would say to me, and I started meeting the girls from the different sororities, and I didn't know.
I didn't know girls from Kappa Kappa Gamma, but I did know some from AD Pi and Tri Delt and that was where I really thought I would be more comfortable. There was a policy where you went to Graham Memorial, and we all went, and you would receive an envelope. On the third night, you would write down the three sororities you wanted to be asked back to, and if those sororities wanted to have you come back, they would extend an invitation back to you. You knew if you got through that round, which was not the last round, but the second to the last round, that you would be guaranteed of getting in at least one of the three, and everyone, everyone, would get through that round. ...everybody would get into one sorority or another, it just may not be their first choice, but at least you're going to get into your third choice. I will never forget, it was probably something that changed my life in more ways than one, the experience of going with my friends to Graham Memorial and receiving our envelopes with the invitations and receiving an empty envelope. I knew as soon as it was handed to me that it had nothing in it, and as I walked through the line past Kitty Carmichael, she was ashen, and she looked at me and said, "I told you to look at Kappa Kappa Gamma." What I learned later was that--I'm Jewish--and that the sororities, at that particular time, were not inducting Jewish girls, except for Kappa Kappa Gamma. They were the only sorority that had alumni who had given permission for Jewish girls to be in the sorority, and I had two strikes against me. I was not only Jewish, I had divorced parents, and that was another, at that time in the mid-60s.
One last memory I have on that campus was the Valkeries induction. Valkeries was a women's organization, and it was for women who represented the highest ideals on the campus of leadership, scholarship, and I don't know how much Dean Carmichael had to do with that organization. I suspect she had something to do with every women's organization on that campus, in the sororities and in the dorms. I remember the thrill my junior year when I was inducted. It was a rather scary experience because they come in the middle of the night with all kinds of clanking noises, and they're in robes and their faces are covered, and they come into your- room, and you're half asleep. They stand before you, and one of them reads a special tribute to you and about why you're being inducted into this society. It's really quite moving, and then they tell you to get dressed, and they blindfold you, and they take you away. At the time, I didn't know it, but we were taken to the planetarium. I think initially we were taken to a church near- the planetarium, and we stayed blindfolded until dawn and then one by one we 'd go through the ceremony with candles and rituals, very, very special. And then just as the sun is rising, we'd go to the planetarium and we'd watch the sun rise all together- and then have breakfast.
My freshman year, I was taking a French class, and the professor, he spoke fluent French obviously, and he spoke so quickly that I sometimes would miss parts of what he was saying. So I would raise my hand. I was the only girl in the class, and I would raise my hand and ask him to please repeat whatever he was saying or I would ask questions if he was raising a topic, I would ask questions about it. I think he just became so exasperated with me. He hadn't been teaching there very long, and I don't think he had been teaching very many women. He took the French book, and I was in the back of the room, and he took it, and he threw it at me. It came very close to hitting me, and he yelled at me, he said, "Sharon Rose, why don't you get your MRS degree and get out of this school!" And that attitude was actually, I don't know how widespread it was, but I'd heard it on more than one occasion, that the women who were coming there were there for one reason only. Get that degree and leave us men to our important work, so that was something I didn't forget.
I remember Dean Carmichael saying to me quite early in that whole process, "You really ought to look at Kappa Kappa Gamma." I said, "Well, Dean Carmichael, I'm going to look at all the sororities. I haven't made up my mind." She kept saying over and over, "But Sharon, you really you ought to look at Kappa Kappa Gamma." That's all she would say to me, and I started meeting the girls from the different sororities, and I didn't know.
I didn't know girls from Kappa Kappa Gamma, but I did know some from AD Pi and Tri Delt and that was where I really thought I would be more comfortable. There was a policy where you went to Graham Memorial, and we all went, and you would receive an envelope. On the third night, you would write down the three sororities you wanted to be asked back to, and if those sororities wanted to have you come back, they would extend an invitation back to you. You knew if you got through that round, which was not the last round, but the second to the last round, that you would be guaranteed of getting in at least one of the three, and everyone, everyone, would get through that round. ...everybody would get into one sorority or another, it just may not be their first choice, but at least you're going to get into your third choice. I will never forget, it was probably something that changed my life in more ways than one, the experience of going with my friends to Graham Memorial and receiving our envelopes with the invitations and receiving an empty envelope. I knew as soon as it was handed to me that it had nothing in it, and as I walked through the line past Kitty Carmichael, she was ashen, and she looked at me and said, "I told you to look at Kappa Kappa Gamma." What I learned later was that--I'm Jewish--and that the sororities, at that particular time, were not inducting Jewish girls, except for Kappa Kappa Gamma. They were the only sorority that had alumni who had given permission for Jewish girls to be in the sorority, and I had two strikes against me. I was not only Jewish, I had divorced parents, and that was another, at that time in the mid-60s.
One last memory I have on that campus was the Valkeries induction. Valkeries was a women's organization, and it was for women who represented the highest ideals on the campus of leadership, scholarship, and I don't know how much Dean Carmichael had to do with that organization. I suspect she had something to do with every women's organization on that campus, in the sororities and in the dorms. I remember the thrill my junior year when I was inducted. It was a rather scary experience because they come in the middle of the night with all kinds of clanking noises, and they're in robes and their faces are covered, and they come into your- room, and you're half asleep. They stand before you, and one of them reads a special tribute to you and about why you're being inducted into this society. It's really quite moving, and then they tell you to get dressed, and they blindfold you, and they take you away. At the time, I didn't know it, but we were taken to the planetarium. I think initially we were taken to a church near- the planetarium, and we stayed blindfolded until dawn and then one by one we 'd go through the ceremony with candles and rituals, very, very special. And then just as the sun is rising, we'd go to the planetarium and we'd watch the sun rise all together- and then have breakfast.
My freshman year, I was taking a French class, and the professor, he spoke fluent French obviously, and he spoke so quickly that I sometimes would miss parts of what he was saying. So I would raise my hand. I was the only girl in the class, and I would raise my hand and ask him to please repeat whatever he was saying or I would ask questions if he was raising a topic, I would ask questions about it. I think he just became so exasperated with me. He hadn't been teaching there very long, and I don't think he had been teaching very many women. He took the French book, and I was in the back of the room, and he took it, and he threw it at me. It came very close to hitting me, and he yelled at me, he said, "Sharon Rose, why don't you get your MRS degree and get out of this school!" And that attitude was actually, I don't know how widespread it was, but I'd heard it on more than one occasion, that the women who were coming there were there for one reason only. Get that degree and leave us men to our important work, so that was something I didn't forget.