Quiet, demure and tough are three words that longtime editor and current Greenbelt News Review staff member Mary Lou Williamson used to describe Dr. Virginia Beauchamp, a proud Greenbelter, avid supporter of women’s rights and journalist and sometime editor for the News Review for more than 60 years. Beauchamp copy-edited the News Review every Tuesday afternoon until she was well into her 90s and increasing frailty kept her reluctantly home.
“She was a feminist and a tireless volunteer for Greenbelt in Greenbelt,” said University of Maryland Campus Club President Sarah Bourne.
Bourne met Beauchamp in the 1960s. They were both members of the Prince George’s County Historical Society and strong proponents of the Equal Rights Amendment. Throughout their long history, Bourne said she always viewed Beauchamp with “a great deal of respect.”
One of Beauchamp’s significant attributes was to gather like-minded women to dig into issues. For example she served with a group that wrote women into the textbooks of county schools in the 1960s.
In light of Beauchamp’s life and Women’s History Month, the Greenbelt News Review will be matching all March donations (up to $5,000) made to the University of Maryland’s Virginia W. Beauchamp Scholarship.
The Beauchamp Scholarship has provided annual need-based awards of $750 to graduate students in the Department of Women’s Studies – founded by Beauchamp in 1975.
Bourne said that if it hadn’t been for Beauchamp’s persistence, a women’s studies program at U-Md. would have taken a lot longer to come about, adding that Beauchamp was instrumental in spreading awareness for women’s issues and perspectives.
“The entire academic establishment is run by men, and they are interested in their experience,” Beauchamp once told The Washington Post. “In their minds, the stories and lives of women are peripheral. That’s why you’ve never heard of half of the books I teach.”
Referring to the president of the university at the time, Bourne said, “[Virginia] nattered at him until he said, ‘Okay, here’s one class.’ That initial course of women’s history turned into a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s degree and now there are doctorates in the program.”
Beauchamp, a professor and single parent for most of her professional life, served on the Women’s Action Coalition of Prince George’s County and the Prince George’s County Commission on Women from 1990 to 1993.
Admired and recognized for her work in elevating women’s issues, Beauchamp was inducted into the Prince George’s County Women’s Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame in 2003.
In 2002, Greenbelt named Beauchamp its Outstanding Citizen. “Dr. Virginia Beauchamp has added distinction to the city of Greenbelt,” Chair Robert Zugby said. “She is a dedicated community worker and leader, is modest and unassuming, a beloved teacher, has integrity, tenacity, humor, warmth and is productive and creative.”
According to Williamson, Beauchamp, in her spare time, enjoyed playing bridge at the Community Center, helped establish women’s groups and senior housing in the city and participated in the Co-op Nursery School when her three children attended.
A mother, leader and friend, Beauchamp gave so much to her community. The News Review staff believes that through this series of stories, it will successfully call upon the community to open their hearts and give generously to honor her and help sustain the initiative she began.
So far, nearly $15,000 of the $25,000 endowment goal has been reached. Once endowed, the Beauchamp Scholarship will live in perpetuity to support generations of students. The fund must reach $25,000 by June 30, 2021 in order to become an endowed scholarship and have the potential to increase the stipend it can offer students from $750 to $1,000 or more.
“I hope if [students are] going to school on her scholarship they’ll learn a little bit about her,” Bourne said in her concluding remarks about Beauchamp. The News Review staff hopes that, along with recording the legacy of a great Greenbelter and friend, the community will also be able to learn a little bit more about its quiet, demure and tough protector of justice and equality.
This article is part three of a three-part series honoring Virginia Beauchamp’s life and her legacy. Information on how to give to the Beauchamp Scholarship can be found in the advertisement on page 9.
Brogan Gerhart is a student in journalism at the University of Maryland reporting for the News Review.