Ruth W. Greenfield

Ruth Miriam Greenfield ( Wolkowsky; November 17, 1923 – July 27, 2023) was an American concert pianist and teacher who, through music, broke racial barriers and brought together black and white students, taught by black and white teachers. This pioneering color-blind approach, considered scandalous at the time, was a breath of fresh air in the then-segregated society. Biography Ruth Miriam Wolkowsky was born in Key West, Florida, on November 17, 1923. At age six months she moved to Miami and was raised there. While growing up, she was unaware of the pervasive segregation of the time, except when visiting her grandparents in Spring Garden. Across the railroad tracks from there was the neighborhood then called Colored Town, and now called Overtown. This town seemed like a strange other world, in which black people had a servile role, doing laundry for white people. Greenfield began studying piano at age 5, and later studied with Mana-Zucca, who moved from New York to Miami. Greenfield graduated from Miami Beach High School in 1941, then studied for two years at the University of Miami, then obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees in music at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While studying with the renowned pianist Artur Schnabel, she broke more racial taboos by dating a classmate who was a young black man from Jamaica. She returned to the University of Miami again to teach piano.