75-year-old Raleigh woman graduates from Shaw after 57-year gap

Rebecca Inge crossed the stage at Shaw University in Raleigh at 75, closing a chapter that began when she left Sanford for campus in 1965 and did not end until 57 years later. Her May 8 commencement was scheduled as part of Shaw’s graduation ceremonies, and a later photo showed her at the Raleigh Convention Center after participating in the exercise.

Inge’s path back to Shaw was shaped by work, family and loss. WRAL reported that she worked in Shaw’s cafeteria to help pay for school after arriving by train from Sanford. She had hoped to attend medical school, saying she wanted to be a surgeon because she was often sick as a child, and she also had an interest in engineering.

Marriage and the birth of her daughter interrupted that plan. Her daughter, Marisa Ratliff Dunston, said Inge put her own education on hold so Dunston could complete hers, build a career and serve in the U.S. military, including assignments in Germany and Japan. Inge’s husband died in 2015, and after that she decided to return to Shaw and finish the degree she had started in the 1960s.

Getting back into the classroom took its own effort. Inge said Shaw staff had to locate her records before she could re-enroll, and she had to adjust to a campus changed by computers and email after more than half a century away. She later described work that also carried her far beyond Raleigh, including a stint at NASA during the first space shuttle mission and another at Disney World as a safety instructor.

The milestone carried extra weight because it landed on Mother’s Day. Atlanta Black Star reported that Inge received her bachelor’s degree on Sunday, May 8, 2022, and noted the date’s symbolism for a mother who spent years making room for someone else’s education before returning to claim her own.

Shaw’s history gives Inge’s degree even more local resonance. Founded in 1865, Shaw was the first HBCU in North Carolina and the first in the American South. Its legacy includes early civil-rights importance, including serving as the birthplace of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960 under alumna Ella Baker. Shaw alumna Sohndra Stone Snead, class of 1971, called Inge’s return after such a long absence “bold, brave, and deserving of commendation,” a reaction that fit the scale of a woman who turned a delayed dream into a Raleigh graduation nearly six decades in the making.