Vashti E. (Crutcher) Lewis ’71, educator and pioneer in the Wichita civil rights movement, was among the first African-American women to teach at Wichita State. While working toward a bachelor’s degree in biology at Friends University, she led sit-ins at area theaters and other businesses to protest discriminatory business practices. In 1969, she began working on a master’s degree in English at Wichita State. She taught at WSU from 1969 until 1977, focusing on English and African-American literature and, in 1972, was awarded a Fulbright-Hayes Graduate Fellowship in African Literature and History, which led to studies at The University of Ghana, Africa. In 1981 she received a doctorate in American studies from the University of Iowa. There, as she had done in Wichita, she published a number of papers on African-American literature, focusing primarily on women writers. Dr. Lewis then taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Roosevelt University and Northern Illinois University. After her retirement, she returned to Wichita to teach at Wichita State in 1993 and then part-time until 2001. During this time period she founded a book club that brought together people of all ages — an act that reflected her continuing passion for and devotion to lifelong learning. Vashti Lewis died Sept. 30 in Greensboro, N.C.
— Jedd Beaudoin ’01
