Blacks and the Race Question at Harvard Randall
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INTRODUCTION: BLACKS AND THE RACE QUESTION AT HARVARD RANDALL KENNED Y The history of blacks at Harvard mirrors, for better or for worse, the history o f black s i n th e Unite d States . Harvard , too , ha s been in - delibly scarred b y slavery, exclusion, segregation, an d other form s o f racist oppression. A t the same time, the nation's oldest university has also supported an d allowe d itsel f t o b e influence d b y th e variou s reform movements that have dramatically changed the nature of race relations acros s th e nation . Th e stor y o f black s a t Harvar d i s thus inspiring but painful, instructive but ambiguous—a paradoxical episode in the most vexing controversy of American life: "th e race question." The evolution of the race question at Harvard is tellingly displayed by the documents tha t hav e been collecte d her e b y Werner Sollors , Caldwell Titcomb, and Thomas A. Underwood. Tw o salient character- istics distinguis h th e collection . Th e firs t i s th e ric h variet y o f it s sources. Include d in this documentary history are scholarly overviews, poems, short stories , speeches, well-known memoir s b y the famous , previously unpublishe d memoir s b y th e lesse r known , newspape r accounts, letters, officia l paper s o f th e university , an d transcript s o f debates. Th e editors bring to their compilation persons as diverse as Booker T Washington , Monroe Trotter, William Hastie, Malcolm X, and Muriel Snowden to convey the complex and various ways in which Harvard has affected th e thinking of African Americans and the ways, in turn, in which African American s have influenced th e traditions of Harvard and Radcliffe. Notabl e among the contributors are significant figures i n African-American letters : Philli s Wheatley , Alai n Locke , Sterling Brown , Counte e Cullen , Marit a Bonner , Jame s Ala n McPherson, and Andrea Lee. Equall y salient are some of the nation's xviii Introduction leading historians : W.E.B . D u Bois , Rayfor d Logan , Joh n Hop e Franklin, an d Nathan I. Huggins. The second noteworth y characteristic of th e collection i s its lack of sentimentality. Th e editors have made no attempt to hide or mini- mize embarrassment s o r conflicts , regardles s o f th e actor s involved . The resul t i s a sourceboo k tha t bring s reader s close—perhap s o n occasion uncomfortabl y close—t o a histor y tha t i s ful l o f painfu l tensions. The documents tha t constitute Blacks at Harvard can usefully be divided into three periods: (1 ) the era during which Harvard excluded virtually al l Africa n American s fro m participatio n i n th e intellectua l life of th e school; (2) the er a during which Harvar d admitted a small number o f blac k students , exclude d blac k teachers , an d generall y relegated "th e rac e question " t o th e margin s o f th e university' s consciousness; an d (3 ) th e er a durin g whic h th e number s o f blac k students a t Harvar d ros e dramatically , blac k scholar s emerge d a s a small bu t discernibl e presenc e o n th e faculty , an d the rac e questio n became no t onl y a centra l an d burnin g issue , bu t als o a n issu e institutionalized t o a considerable degree throug h the creation of a n Afro-American Studie s Department . I African Americans affected lif e at Harvard long before they came to the campu s a s students o r professors. A s Emor y J. West notes i n his essay , "Harvar d an d th e Blac k Man , 1636-1850, " th e universit y reaped considerable benefits from the slave trade, which was, through- out much of the seventeenth an d eighteenth centuries , a major pillar of Ne w England' s commerce . Student s an d professor s a t Harvar d owned slave s (includin g a t leas t tw o president s o f th e university , Increase Mathe r an d Benjamin Wadsworth) . An d students an d pro- fessors helpe d t o justify "th e peculiar institution. " I n hi s essay "Th e Black Presenc e a t Harvard, " Caldwel l Titcom b attribute s t o Dea n Henry Eusti s th e statemen t tha t blacks ar e "littl e abov e beasts," and quotes Dean Nathaniel Shaler as declaring that blacks were "unfi t for an independent plac e i n a civilized state. " Yet , i t i s a student wh o earns th e dubiou s distinctio n o f havin g uttered th e mos t memorabl e example of racist , pro-slaver y advocacy in the documents tha t follow . At " A Forensic Disput e o n th e Legalit y o f Enslavin g th e Africans , Introduction xix Held a t th e Publi c Commencemen t [o f Harvar d College ] i n Cambridge, New-England , (Boston , 1773), " a graduatin g senior , defending slavery , aske d revealingly : "[W]h o I beseec h you , eve r thought the consent of a child, an ideot, or a madman necessary to his subordination? Ever y whi t a s immaterial , i s th e consen t o f thes e miserable Africans, whose real character seems to be a compound o f the thre e las t mentioned . Wha t ca n avai l hi s consent , wh o through ignoranc e of the means necessary to promote his happiness, is rendered altogethe r incapable of choosing for himself? " Although man y member s o f th e Harvar d communit y eithe r defended o r tolerate d slaver y (wit h al l o f th e damagin g intellectua l and mora l implication s flowin g fro m suc h positions) , som e di d pla y outstanding roles in the antislavery campaign. Lati n Professor Charles Beck, for instance, aided runaway slaves, going so far a s to put a trap door o n th e secon d floo r o f hi s residence (no w Warren House , th e home o f the Harvar d Englis h Department) t o help fugitive s movin g north o n th e Undergroun d Railroad . Th e mos t prominen t fact , however, abou t Harvar d an d it s relationshi p wit h blac k American s prior to the Civi l War, is that, by and large, the university firmly shut its door s t o Africa n Americans . Fo r a brie f momen t i n 1850 , i t seemed tha t tha t traditio n woul d change. I n tha t year, the Harvar d Medical School admitted three black students: Danie l Laing, Jr., Isaac H. Snowden, and Martin R. Delany. Ye t this break with tradition was short-lived. Th e Medica l Schoo l administratio n expelle d th e blacks at the end of their first sessio n of classes because of pressure exerted by white student s oppose d t o th e blacks ' presence. Explainin g th e Medical School's action, Dean Olive r Wendell Holmes (the father o f Justice Holmes ) maintaine d tha t "th e intermixin g o f th e whit e an d black races i n their lecture room s i s distasteful t o a large portion o f the class and injuriou s t o the interests of the school." Setting asid e th e Medica l School' s brie f experiment , Harvar d University shu t it s doors t o Africa n American s throughou t th e firs t 229 years of its existence. II The origins o f a n African-American presenc e amon g students at Harvard dates back to the years immediately following the Civil War. In 1865 , th e Medica l Schoo l reverse d it s polic y prohibitin g blac k XX Introduction students and admitted Edwin C.J.T. Howard. Th e same year, Harvard College admitted Richar d T. Greener. Fou r years later, Howard an d two other African-America n students—Georg e L . Ruffin o f the La w School, an d Rober t Tanne r Freema n o f th e Dental School—becam e the first blacks to graduate from Harvard, an accomplishment attaine d in 187 0 by Greener . These students an d the trickle that followe d the m encountered a complicated se t o f conflictin g response s a t Harvard . I n importan t respects, the y foun d a communit y willin g t o recognize , develop, an d reward thei r talent s an d achievements . W.E.B . Du Bois' s memorie s of his Harvard years are filled with praise (as well as criticism) for th e university: Harvard University in 1888 was a great institution of learning.... From the beginning my relations with most of the teachers at Harvard were pleasant. They wer e o n th e whol e gla d t o receiv e a seriou s student..