Dr. Wilkerson maintained her connection to the university all her life.

Winston-Salem State University has received a $220,000 gift from the estate of Dr. Rachel E. Diggs Wilkinson, who passed away in 2008.  The funds will be divided equally between an endowed scholarship and establishing an endowment fund for Diggs Gallery.

“This gift represents Dr. Wilkinson’s long-term commitment to the university and is one of the largest estate gifts we have ever received,” said Dr. Brenda Allen, provost.  “The new Rachel E. Diggs Wilkinson Scholarship will certainly benefit worthy students who are in financial need.  Also, this initial gift to Diggs Gallery will allow us to establish an endowment fund that can provide operational support for this unique art treasure that serves not only the university, but the broader community.”

The ties Wilkinson and her family have to Winston-Salem State go back to the institution’s beginnings.  Her parents were graduates of Slater Industrial Academy, while she and four of her five siblings were honor graduates of what was then Winston-Salem Teachers College. The education wing of the Anderson Center on the WSSU campus is named after her grandfather, Bishop Jefferson Davis Diggs, as is Diggs Elementary School, Diggs Boulevard and Diggs Memorial United Holy Church in Winston-Salem.  Additionally, the Diggs Gallery is named for her brother, “T” Diggs, who was an artist and art professor at WSSU for 45 years.

Wilkinson graduated from WSSU in 1933 and was then denied admission to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill because of her race.  She enrolled at Columbia University and earned her master’s degree there in 1937.  She then returned to North Carolina to teach in the public schools until she was named dean of women at WSSU in 1940.

She earned her doctorate in higher education at New York University and later joined the City University of New York, where she stayed until her retirement in 1972 as a full professor.