175 Makers of History: Eléonore Raoul Greene
Eléonore Raoul Greene 20L 79H
First Female to Enroll at Emory
In 1917, Eléonore Raoul Greene became the first woman admitted to Emory University. Chancellor Warren Candler, who vigorously opposed coeducation, was adamant that no women would matriculate at Emory. Undeterred, Greene is said to have enrolled while the chancellor was out of town. This type of quick thinking must have served the former debutante well as she butted heads with important men over equal rights for women.
Born in 1888 in Staten Island, New York, Greene served as chair of the Fulton and DeKalb County branches of the Equal Suffrage Party of Georgia. She went on to work with the national party as a field organizer in West Virginia and at its headquarters in New York. In the early 1920s she helped to organize the Atlanta League of Women Voters and served as its president in 1922 and 1930. She remained active with the organization throughout her life.