McCready paved way for black students

Her white classmates ignored her. She walked alone down the hallways and sat by herself at lunch. Surgeon R. Adams Cowley refused to face her side of the room during lectures. And the school wouldn?t let her share a dorm room with other students, instead clearing out an office on a separate floor.

Stepping inside the University of Maryland School of Nursing as the first black student was like walking into an “igloo,” Esther McCready says.