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Plaques honor trailblazing William & Mary students

Three women, who made history twice before, are making history again.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (WVEC) -- There's more history being made at the College of William and Mary.

There are now two new plaques on campus honoring women, including one that honors the first African-American students to live on campus.

Janet Brown Strafer, Karen Ely and Lynn Briley are known as the “Legacy 3.”

They enrolled in 1967 as the first African-American students to live on William and Mary's campus. They're also the first African-American women to graduate from William and Mary.

They were committed and said failure was not an option.

“We supported each other and encouraged each other,” Briley said. “We couldn't be the first to quit!”

The plaque not only honors them, but the African-American students earlier denied full participation but played a key role in the integration process.

“We would walk through this building and see other plaques and see names, so to see our names with the others is astounding,” Strafer said.

William and Mary also unveiled another plaque Thursday honoring the first 24 women to enroll as students in 1918.

Because of those 24 women, William and Mary became the first coeducational public university in Virginia.

The plaques, sit in the Wren building, the oldest college building in the country.

Now, these three women say to have their names embedded permanently in the building is overwhelming.

“I never envisioned this especially where it's located,” Ely said. “Our plaques are across from alumni who established the country.”

For more information about the plaques, click here.

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