Anita Scott Coleman Scholarship

Scholarship Type: Annually Funded Immediate Use
Established Date: July 16, 2018

The Anita Scott Coleman Scholarship was established to honor the legacy of one of WNMU’s first black graduates. Born in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico, Anita Scott Coleman earned her teaching degree from WNMU in 1909, making her and another female student that year the first two black graduates of the institution. Raised on a ranch, Coleman was the daughter of a slave mother and a Buffalo Soldier father. Penning award winning essays, stories, and poems, Coleman’s writings of the 1920s, an era considered the Black Renaissance, would focus on racial pride and black women’s issues. Her legacy is commemorated each year at the Miller Library with a display of her writings. A historical marker in her honor can be found in historic Downtown Silver City.