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May 15, 2009
Remembering Nina Miglionico '33
Last week brought news that Samford alumna Nina Miglionico had died, having long outlived the official prejudice she helped cast out of Birmingham.
This Catholic daughter of Italian immigrants was an unlikely candidate to attend Baptist Howard College in the 1930s, when anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant prejudice were common (a school teacher once said of her and her siblings, "my, you all do come to school clean to be Italian"). She thrived here, though, and believed that Howard College nurtured in her a willingness to think for herself and defend her beliefs.
In an oral history transcript kept in Samford's Special Collections Department, Miglionico recalls being assigned the book "Pamela" in a freshman literature course. The professor asked the class "How many of you read the full book?" Every student except Nina and one other student raised their hands. When the professor asked why she had not read the book, Miglionico responded, "Well, I was bored. After the first fifty pages all the rest of it was repetition. He chased the girl and she was defending her virtue. After the first episode, it was evident what was going to be."
The other student who hadn't finished the book agreed, but everyone else in the class said the book was marvelous. Then the professor stamped his foot and said "I am glad there are two people in this class who've got some common sense. The book shouldn't be finished! You have to learn to use your judgement!"
"Well, that scared the living daylights out of me," Miglionico continues, "because I had always thought I was supposed to go by rote and do exactly what I was told to do. And you know, from being scared to death, here I was being hailed as somebody with a brain. So it really did teach me a lesson to stand up, you know, because I might have just raised my hand with the rest of them."
Miglionico became very active in campus life, joining a variety of clubs, winning academic honors and serving on the staff of the Crimson and Entre Nous. After earning her A.B. degree she earned a law degree, practiced law and became president of the national Association of Women Lawyers. She served on John F. Kennedy's Commission on the Status of Women and was the first woman elected to the Birmingham City Council. She served on the council for more than two decades, helping to lead Birmingham out of the violent segregation era, enduring numerous threats and obstacles along the way.
"Miss Nina" led a rich and courageous life, and she was one of us.
Learn more about Nina Miglionico in the Summer issue of Seasons magazine.
