• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

I THE HISTORY OF INTEGRATION AT WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY E. Kemp Reece, Jr. Age of Individualism: 1950's-1960's Dr. James Howell Smith, Instructor April 30, 1981 • THE HISTORY OF INTEGRATION AT WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY Although the history of integration at Wake Forest University barely spans a generation, the period is, nonetheless, rich in its heritage. Integration began in the early 1960's with the Woolworth's sit-in and the acceptance of Edward Reynolds to the college, but was not firmly established until the Steve Bowden/Omega Wilson controversy of the early 1970's. During this ten year period, Black students at Wake Forest University made many notable achievements and contributions, not only to the college community, but to society as well. In early February of 1960, Blacks in Winston-Salem began protesting segregated lunch counter service at several downtown department stores. At the downtown Woolworth's store, on February 23, Wake Forest students, led by George Williamson, Jr., were arrested, along with twelve Winston-Salem State students. The twenty-two students were charged with trespassing, but were·later released and acquitted. (Ironically, five days after the sit-ins at Woolworth's, Edward Reynolds from Ghana and an unidentified Winston-Salem Black youth were refused admission to the college solely on the basis of race).1 By March ..... desegregation was the subject of discussion among students and faculty members at Wake Forest. The student legislature passed, on March 3, by a nine to four margin, a resolution asking the Board of Trustees, "to take .a positive stand on Wake Forest's admission policy in regards to - 2 - race."2 Furthermore, the legislature strongly reconnnended that there be no racial discrimination in the admission of students to the college. On March 8, sixty Wake Forest faculty members addressed the issue of desegregation by petitioning five Winston-Salem variety stores, (S.H. Kress, L.H. Green, i.J:algreen F.W. Woolworth, Number 1 & 2) to end lunch counter segregation. 3 Wake Forest Chaplain, Edgar D. Christman, called this resolution "extremely significant" because the Wake Forest faculty was telling businessmen in the City of Winston- Salem how to runt h eir. b usinesses.. 4 However, by the end of the month, the mood of the student body, numbering 1,778, had apparently changed. Iri a poll taken in the Chapel on March 29 (administered by Jack Pryon; 29 year old accounting student), 1,346 students particiapted and voted as follows: 'neverI integrate, II 742; "integrate in the immediate future," 282; "integrate in the relative near future," 322.5 Dr. Clarence H. Patrick, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Wake Forest, called the poll "worthless" because of the conditions and atmos• phere under which it was conducted.6 In the ensuing days, the faculty felt compelled to examine more closely the role of Wake Forest regarding integration. In a faculty meeting on April 11, 1960, J. Allen Easley, Professor Emeritus of Religion at Wake Forest, was appointed chairman of a special faculty committee created to study "the practice of racial discrimination in college admission.117 The members of the Faculty Committee included Harold M. Barrow, John C.· Broderick, J, Allen Easley, George J. Griffin, Phillip J, Hamrick, J. Robert Johnson, Jr., and Henry S. Stroupe. The Committee was to begin its study of the admissions policy in the following school year. In May of 1960, during a Baptist Student Union Training Seminar at Wake Forest Baptist Church, students were studying the Rise of Communism in Third - 4 - Reynolds ' arriva.. 1 13 One of the more interesting methods of raising money involved several members of the administration and faculty. Dressed as waiters, they served meals in the Magnolia Room, on the Wake Forest Campus, and gave their tips to the ASP.14 Twenty-five dollar pledges were received from students and faculty, Money was also donated by the Wake Forest Baptist Church, whose pastor, coincidentally, was Glenn Blackburn's father.15 In the following school year, wh.ile students were working to secure pledges for the ASP, the Faculty Committee was confronting the question of de• segregation. The Committee's first meeting was held on October 10, 1960, and for the next four months the membe-xs :tnvestig,ctte!d desegregat:Lqn in No;r.th. Oca,+io..,. lina Colleges and Universities; reviewed pronouncements of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention; surveyed desegregation in Southern Colleges in general, and examined available articles and reports on desegregation. 16 The Committee also circulated a memorandum, inviting all persons interested to appeal before the group to discuss their views, "There was only one person ·who took a decidedly negative position," Dr. Easley recalled, "He raised the question as to whether integration of the student body would damage the in- come. 1117 The Faculty Committee reached a unanimous decision on Fehruary 13, 1961, stating that it was "no longer proper to exclude applicants from Wake Forest College, in. the ory or prac ti ce, so 1e 1 yon tuet:. t;uasis o f race or color. 1118 The Trustees were then invited to join the faculty in changing the admission policy of the college; the Trustees, however, requested that Dr, Easley appear before their committee. Dr. Easley went before the Trustee Committee "of not more than three," and reviewed the operations, activities, and conclusions.of the 19 Faculty Committee's study. "I was left with the feeling," Dr, Easley said, lj - 5 - "that they (the Trustees) certainly weren't too excited about integ;ration.1120 After the Faculty Committee made its proposal to the Board of Trustees, the Wake Forest community anxiously awaited the Trustees decision. Dr. Robert Gregory, the ASP Faculty Advisory, had submitted Edward Reynold's application to the Wake Forest Admissions Committee early in 1961; therefore, the ~ttention of students and faculty were rivetted on the April 28th meeting of the Board of Trustees. William G. Starling, Director of Admissions at Wake Forest, recalled that "while no formal policy existed which excluded Blacks from entering the college; nonetheless, tradition here was as powerful as law.1121 However, on April 28, 1961, the Board of Trustees broke tradition and allowed the Law School, Medical School, and Graduate Schools to "use their own discretion with. regar d toteh a dmi ssions. po 1.icy. ,,22 Although a battle had been won in the fight for desegregation, the war waged on to relax racial bars in the under- graduate school. ·On June 5, 1961, the Board of Trustees took a step closer to desegregating the undergraduate school of Wake Forest, by voting to admit Blacks to the summer school and night classes. Kenard C. Rockette, a twenty-one-year old Winston-Salem mathematics major at North Carolina Agricultrual and Technical State University, enrolled at Wake Forest on June 12, 1~61. He became the first Black to attend the college since the Trustees' decision. Rockette and two other Winston-Salem Blacks, Mary Ann Hollins and Odell Hatcher, attended· the second session of the Wake Forest summer schoo1.23 Rockette said in a telephone interview that "I wanted to see if any Blacks would enroll, and when none did, I didn't want the opportunity to slip away."24 Since the trustees had altered the Faculty Committee's proposal, denying Edward Reynolds admission to the undergraduate school, the ASP found it - 6 - necessary to alter its plans concerning Edward Reynolds. During the summer of 1961, Edward Reynold's application was sent to Shaw University, a Black College in Raleigh, North Carolina. The intention of the ASP was to send Reynolds to Shaw University for a year, and then have him trans• fer to Wake Forest as soon as the Trustees relaxed the admissions policy. Reynolds was accepted at Shaw University and members of the ASP prepared for his arrival in the United States at the end of August. On August 25, 1961, Reynolds arrived in Winston-Salem and was welcomed into the home of Dr. Gregory. Classes started at Shaw University on September 14th and Reynolds entered, eagerly awaiting a change in the admissions policy at Wake Forest University. Mrs. Gloria c. Goore, a Math Instructor at Winston-Salem State Teachers College, and Roland H. Hayes, a teller at Wachovia Bank, enrolled on September 8, 1961, for evening classes at Wake Forest. 25 Throughout the fall term of 1961, members of the ASP continued to solicit pledges from Wake Forest students and faculty. Letters were written to the Trustees encouraging them to reconsider admitting Edward Reynolds for the next schooi year. Reynolds made excellent progress in the short time he had been at Shaw University; he was treasurer of the Campus Theological Society; Progress Chairman of the Student Christian Movement, and in the meantime managed to main• tain a 4.0 grade point average.26 Further progress was made in the desegregation struggle, wh.en the Baptist. State Convention met at the Memorial Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina, on November 14, 1961. The Christian Life Committee recommended to the Convention that it go on record as commending the the constructive steps which has been taken (desegregating the graduate schools, the summer school, and the evening classes) and urged the Trustees to move as "quickly as possible toward a policy 'i. - 7 - of opening the doors of knowledge and service to qualified applicants regardless of race.1127 The next Board of Trustees meeting was scheduled for January 12, 1962. Again, the Trustees refused to sanction desegregation at Wake Forest, but voted unanimously to refer the question to its Race Relations Committee. The Committee was requested to study desegregation at Wake Forest and directed that it return on April 27th at the Board's next scheduled meeting, and present a proposal.

Load more

  9

Copy Link