Whiskerinos, Orange Queens, and Bedlam at the Dorms: Demarcating Lines of Gender, Class, and Race at Riverside Junior College in the 1930s

Abstract

This study seeks to fill in a gap in the research on student experiences of campus life during the Great Depression. Based on student newspapers and yearbooks at one junior college in an agricultural region of the southwestern United States, this article examines student representations of campus life. At Riverside Junior College, particular views of identity became visible in the context of state laws, local culture, and economic need. Some women had special accommodations that, while helpful to individual women, also reinscribed a view of women as in need of protection against the possibility of sexual exploitation. The college environment supported these middle-class collegiate women, and also supported another group in the broader community: indigent Children of Color. When white able-bodied football players presented themselves as in need of help, however, protest ensued. This article offers insight into the experiences of those who pursued higher education during a time of economic crisis.