This paper is part of a larger study of southern African American women who were awarded fellowship awards by the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the General Education Board (GEB) for the purpose of graduate study at northern universities prior to school desegregation. An examination of their professional histories suggests that the women faced a glass ceiling constructed by race, class, and gender both in the larger southern community and within the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in which they worked. It also suggests, however, that advanced education and graduate degrees enabled them to informally construct their own authority within the strictures of the segregated South and the HBCUs during the first half of the 20th century, thus contributing significantly to academic and institutional leadership. This paper concentrates on the stories of four individuals: Florence Beatty Brown, Carrie Coleman Robinson, Flemmie Pansy Kittrell, and Lillian Burwell Lewis. Contains 31 notes. (Author/MM)