in San Francisco, graduating in 1938. She won the Crusaders' Oratorical Contest and a free trip to Hawaii with her mother in June 1937. When she was 17, Channing left home to attend Bennington College in Vermont. At that time, Channing's mother told her for the first time that her father George had Black ancestry. Channing's mother felt that she ought to have this information since she was going off to college; she did not want her daughter to be surprised if she ever had a Black baby.

Channing