Back talk with Johnnetta B. Cole.(Interview)

Johnnetta B. Cole made history in 1987 by becoming the first African American woman to serve as president of Spelman College. At her inauguration, Bill and Camille Cosby made a $20 million donation to the school--at that time the largest single gift from individuals to any historically black college or university.

Under Cole's leadership, Spelman was the first HBCU to be named the No. 1 liberal arts college in the South by U.S. News & World Report. After a decade at Spelman, Cole became a professor of anthropology at Emory University in 1998. She retired in 2001 but later accepted an appointment to Bennett College for Women as the school's 14th president.

Cole, 68, successfully brought Bennett College--a small, residential, four-year …