Academic cap worn by Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole at Bennett College

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A blue and gold mortarboard cap from Bennett College worn by Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole. The cap has a stiff square top that is covered in a bright blue synthetic fabric. A wide strip of blue, black, and gold striped woven tape is attached diagonally across the top. An excerpt from the poem "Still I Rise" (1978) by Maya Angelou reading "Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear / I rise / Maya Angelou" is printed in gold beneath the woven band. The cap is trimmed with black, gold, and blue woven tape in a scrollwork pattern, with the tape wrapping around the top and the bottom edges of the mortarboard. A circular opening at the center of the bottom side of the mortarboard is surrounded by a panel of the blue synthetic fabric and the same woven tape used to trim the mortarboard, with elastic inside it to secure the mortarboard to the head.

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