Vivienne Malone-Mayes

"I remember that the advanced calculus course was taught by a graduate student and met at 7 A.M. every morning, and not only was I the only woman, I was the only black in the class. I sat right next to the door and I was truly isolated. I had no one to talk to in the class; even though there were two other girls in the class, they avoided me like I was some sort of plague, because if you're not a white woman, you can't associate with anybody except maybe handicapped men."

"Was my vacuum created because I was black or female or both?"

"She just explained to me that this was the way the world was, and we had to accept it, and there was nothing we can do about it, and we had to just sit there and adjust to it."