A History of Minority Participation in the Southeastern Section

A History of Minority Participation in the Southeastern Section A supplement to Threescore and Ten: A History of the Southeastern Section of The Mathematical Association of America 1922–1992 prepared by Etta Z. Falconer, Ph.D., Harriet J. Walton, Ph.D., J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr., Ph.D., Abdulalim A. Shabazz, Ph.D., and Sylvia T. Bozeman, Ph.D. April, 1995 Preface Winter, 1995 This manuscript is a supplement to Threescore and Ten: A History of the Southeastern Section of The Mathematical Association of America, 1922–1992, distributed at the annual section meeting in April, 1992. The Section History gave details such as where meetings were held, who the officers were, and who the main speakers were during the years 1922– 1992. It also included recollections of some members of the section who had been active over many years. This narrative does not contain an important story, that of the African- American members of the Section. As no history is ever complete, even this supplementary manuscript cannot tell the whole story for the time it covers, and certainly is not the end of the story. As we continue to gather information, the entire Section history will continue to grow and reflect the Section’s size, diversity, and complexity. After the publication and distribution in Spring 1992 of the history of the Section’s first seventy years, several members recalled the exclusion of minority MAA members during most of those years and felt that the experiences of African-American mathematicians in the Southeast in the MAA should be told. This manuscript includes some of these stories from the past as well as a description of the efforts the Section is making today to move from exclusion to inclusion of all members and to erase the scars of former times. In recent years the Section has reached out to all mathematicians and mathematics educators, in order to be an organization that is not only welcoming but invitational. The story of the Southeastern Section—where we were, where we are today, and the efforts we are making which will affect where we will be—may inspire other sections to follow our lead. The Section has seen big changes and has moved to recognize the diversity of our members and their interests. In the past decade, the Southeastern Section has had female mathematicians in positions of Chair, Vice-Chair, Newsletter Editor, State Director, and Governor; many are firsts for the Section. Since 1988, the Section meeting has included a regional meeting of AMATYC (The American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges). Programs to encourage students have included TA Rush, which was started in 1989 to bring advanced undergraduates together with faculty from graduate degree granting institutions to talk about graduate study opportunities, and a pizza lunch for students and their MAA Student Chapters since 1992. It is the 1990s that have seen the real change in participation of African-Americans. A regional meeting of NAM (National Association of Mathemati- cians) was included in the 1992 program, with the hopes that this would become a regular feature. The nineties have seen African-American mathematicians among the major in- vited speakers at the annual meetings, as well as among the Section officers and committee members, and also the establishment of the section Committee on Minority Participation. These activities are further described in this document. The glue that binds the members of the MAA is interest in mathematics and the teaching of mathematics. All who share that interest should feel a part of this organization. There 1 cannot be any other considerations for membership and for full participation. As mathematicians, we would like to think that we are above discrimination, that all we value is that someone shares our love of mathematics. That has not always been the case and it might not be today. But it is the ideal for which we strive. We hope that the meetings of the past few years have crated an environment in which all mathematicians and mathematics educators in the five-state region feel part of the Section, and at the meetings all members find an atmosphere of belonging. The road to reach these goals is still being traveled. We start by recognizing the incidents of the past. Today the Section members are working together to create a welcoming atmosphere in an inclusive organization. And lastly, we look to the future of a diverse and representative organization dedicated to serving the needs of all mathematicians and mathematics educators. We invite all who share the vision to join us in seeking this ideal. Tina Straley, Chair-elect I The Early Years: Prior to 1965 African-Americans in the Southeast were involved in the teaching of college and university mathematics and in mathematical research during the early years of the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America. However, as far as is known, no African-Americans attended meetings of the section prior to 1951. There are many reasons for the lack of participation of African-Americans in the Southeastern Section during its early years. A major reason was certainly their reluctance to attend meetings hosted by white institutions during a period of segregation and repression when there was little or no contact between the white and black institutions. In addition, those African-Americans who taught at the Black state colleges worried that their Boards of Trustees would take punitive action against them if they were involved in an “incident.” In fact, the mathematics department chair of one of these colleges said in 1951 that if an African-American attempted to attend a meeting, and even got in and was received with a pretense of politeness, “that night someone would make a phone call to someone else and soon people at [the college] would lose their jobs without ever being told why.” The record indicates that African-Americans attempted to attend an annual meeting of the Southeastern Section in 1951, when the meeting was held March 16–17 in Nashville, with Vanderbilt University and Peabody College for Teachers as host institutions. Lee Lorch, the chair of the mathematics department at Fisk University, and three Black colleagues, Evelyn Boyd, Walter Brown, and H. M. Holloway came to the meeting and were able to attend the scientific sessions. Since Fisk was a private institution, these faculty were not taking quite the risk that faculty at public institutions would. However, the meeting was not without incident. Several days before the meeting Professor Lorch had requested four reservations to the banquet, which included an address by Saunders Mac Lane, the President of the 2 MAA. On March 15, the day before the banquet, the chair of the arrangements committee, on learning that three of these reservations were to be used by African-Americans, declared the reservations canceled. Thus the Fisk faculty members could not attend the banquet and hear Mac Lane’s talk, “What Makes Students Think?” The request of Professors Lorch and Boyd to President Mac Lane that he withdraw from the banquet or openly state his objections to discrimination at the banquet was declined on the basis that this action would be discourteous to the hosts. The Fisk faculty then wrote to the Board of Governors of the Mathematical Association of America and the Executive Council of the American Mathematical Society requesting that the organizations place into their bylaws statements that would protect the rights of all members to participate fully in the affairs of the organizations without regard to race, creed or color. (See Appendix I.) Although the Board did not attempt to change the bylaws, it did pass a resolution at its meeting of September 3, 1951 affirming its intention to conduct the affairs of the Associa- tion without discrimination. This resolution was published in the American Mathematical Monthly (November, 1951, p. 661) (See Appendix II.) The resolution requested the Pres- ident to consult with various section officers to “determine the best means for avoiding discrimination,” and the President reported on his conversations to the Board on Decem- ber 28, 1951. (See Appendix III.) One month later, the President communicated his report to all Section officers, noting that he had determined that “it is possible . to conduct the scientific business and social affairs of the Association without discrimination as to race, creed or color. This possibility rests upon careful planning in advance and consultation with the host institution in question.” The President further charged the officers “with re- sponsibility for these plans,” and stated that he would rely upon their “cooperation and wisdom in their execution.” (See Appendix IV.) The Secretary of the Association, Harry Gehman, also sent the report, along with a covering letter inviting membership applica- tions, to “mathematicians in Colleges which are attended predominantly by Negroes.” (See Appendix V.) Meanwhile, on December 17, 1951, Professor Lorch again wrote to the Board of Governors expressing the hope that the Association would implement its resolution with “unequivocal, unambiguous action that will protect the rights of all members to full, equal participation in all aspects of the work of the Association” and making specific suggestions toward this end. (See Appendix VI.) For the remainder of the decade, however, it is not clear what the response of the Southeastern Section was to the request of the President, because African- Americans apparently did not attend Section meetings. What became clear in 1960, however, was that the leadership of the Southeastern Section had not yet reached the position of abiding by the non-discrimination policy articulated by the national organization. On April 1, 1960 a delegation from Atlanta University (AU), consisting of Professor Ab- dulalim A.

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