Isabella Taylor Ravenell ’35

In the Scotlight

Isabella Taylor Ravenell ’35

The College Archives don’t reveal much about Isabella Taylor Ravenell’s basketball-playing years at Gordon, but articles from The Boston Globe paint a picture of the life she had after college—when she returned to her hometown of Dorchester, MA, to help her new husband lead the community at Ebenezer Baptist Church. After two decades of raising children and pouring herself into the church, Ravenell got a master’s degree in education from Boston State College. She began her teaching career in 1959 and later became a respected principal throughout the Dorchester region and beyond. In 1979, Ravenell was awarded the Sojourner Truth Award by the City of Boston, and the mayor dedicated a whole day to her in “recognition of her contributions to the community in the areas of interracial goodwill and cultural activities.” For years, she’d strived to make local officials aware of the racial inequality that existed in Boston’s public school system. In 1969, she was one of the teachers chosen to fill the gaps in a history curriculum that overlooked important aspects of the Black experience in the United States. The history guides she helped create were used by 350 local schoolteachers and 13,000 junior high and high school students each year.