\u27The Crisis\u27 sought information on Black enrollment at U.S. universities in 1930; a reply from UD in W.E.B. Du Bois\u27 papers in the archives at University of Massachusetts Amherst provides a telling example of racial segregation

Gauder, Heidi

Waldron, Caroline

English

University of Dayton

University of Dayton eCommons University Libraries Blog Archive University Libraries 10-13-2020 'The Considerable Number of Students': A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois Heidi Gauder University of Dayton, hgauder1@udayton.edu Caroline Waldron University of Dayton, cwaldron2@udayton.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ul_blog eCommons Citation Gauder, Heidi and Waldron, Caroline, "'The Considerable Number of Students': A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois" (2020). University Libraries Blog Archive. 340. https://ecommons.udayton.edu/ul_blog/340 This Blog is brought to you for free and open access by the University Libraries at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Libraries Blog Archive by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact mschlangen1@udayton.edu, ecommons@udayton.edu. University of Dayton eCommons Roesch Library Faculty Publications Roesch Library 10-13-2020 ‘The Considerable Number of Students’: A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois Heidi Gauder University of Dayton, hgauder1@udayton.edu Caroline Waldron University of Dayton, cwaldron1@udayton.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.udayton.edu/roesch_fac  Part of the Archival Science Commons, and the History Commons eCommons Citation Heidi Gauder and Caroline Waldron (2020). ‘The Considerable Number of Students’: A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois. University of Dayton Libraries blog. , https://ecommons.udayton.edu/roesch_fac/68 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Roesch Library at eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Roesch Library Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCommons. For more information, please contact frice1@udayton.edu, mschlangen1@udayton.edu. Details about spring semester 2021 arrival | UD COVID-19 info page | UD casedashboard  Blogs at UDUniversityLibraries BlogUniversityLibraries WebsiteMarian LibraryBlogBlogs at UD University of Dayton Libraries/ ‘The Considerable Number of Students’: A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois/T U E S D A Y  O C T O B E R  1 3 ,  2 0 2 0Get RSS FeedSubscribe toUD NewsletterUniversity LibrariesU N I V E R S I T Y  O FD A Y T O N  B L O G SB L O G S  D I R E C T O R Y N E W S C A L E N D A RL E A R N L E A D S E R V E A P P LY G I V E M E N U‘The ConsiderableNumber of Students’: AResponse to W.E.B. DuBoisBy Heidi Gauder and Caroline WaldronOnly by critically and openly examining our past can we makeprogress toward racial justice. When Caroline Waldron,associate professor of history, discovered this letter — aresponse from the University of Dayton to a query fromW.E.B. Du Bois about Black enrollment at UD in 1930 — itwas an opportunity to seek answers and reflect on theirmeaning, no matter how uncomfortable. This blog supports the priorities from An Open Letter to theUniversity of Dayton Community from Members of thePresident’s Council Regarding Steps Toward Becoming anAnti-Racist University and the University Libraries'Commitment to Anti-Racism. Please see this video about the University's response to theletter.The letter is brief, dated June 13, 1930, and clearly a reply toan inquiry. It is a total of four numbered paragraphs. Whatmakes it interesting is the letter’s recipient and itsexplanation about the number of African American studentsat the University of Dayton in 1930. In replying to W.E.B. DuBois, editor of The Crisis, Brother Joseph Muench, S.M., notesthat Jessie V. Hathcock is the only African American studentat the University of Dayton, that she graduated with abachelor’s degree in education less than a week prior, andthat her academic record was “very satisfactory.” Moretelling, however, is the last paragraph, where Muenchexplains that the University does not admit African Americanstudents into the day classes, but they are enrolled in thelaw and evening college classes.P R E V I O U SP O S THistory Major'sSurpriseDiscovery:Anti-Su!rageHistory majorand RoeschLibrary regularMarie Poinsatteshares herthoughts on asurprisediscovery shemade in thespringterm: Therewere women inDayton whowere againstwomen’ssu!rage.Read MoreN E X T  P O S TA Conversationwith MaleahWells,OhioLINKLibraryLeaders InternA junior historyWhy did The Crisis want to know about African Americanstudents at the University of Dayton? As part of its annualeducation issue, The Crisis collected information aboutAfrican American student enrollment and achievements atvarious post-secondary institutions. The August 1930 issuereported on the survey results, including “The Attitude ofWhite Colleges Toward Negro Students,” in which Du Boisobserved, “Most of the institutions reporting deny having anyrestrictions on Negro students although it is known that insome cases they do.” He described some institutions as“noncommittal,” in that few African American students apply,and for others that do admit African American students, theyare not allowed to live on campus. Catholic schools, henoted, are noncommittal, although the University of Daytonwas less circumspect than other schools in stating thereason as the “considerable number of students from theSouthern States.”How “considerable” a number of students from the SouthernStates would make it incompatible to admit AfricanAmerican students to the day classes? According to theRegister of Students, 1925-1940, found in the UniversityArchives, the number is not much. In the academic year1929-30, the total number of high school and collegestudents enrolled was 553, of which 22 were from the South:two each from West Virginia and Tennessee; one fromVirginia; three from Missouri; and 14 from Kentucky. In the1930-31 academic year, the ratio was roughly the same: Ofthe 579 students enrolled in the high school and University,24 were from the South (Kentucky, 18; West Virginia, Virginiaand Tennessee, one each; Missouri, three). The prior 1928-29academic year shows the same pattern: 31 of the 614students were from Southern states. For the University ofDayton in 1930, the year that Hathcock graduated, it took just4% of the student population to exclude another populationaltogether. It is unclear — and there is no knowndocumentation to confirm — whether it was the Southernstudents themselves who raised the issue or if it was theadministration that e!ectively segregated African Americanstudents.major sharesher thoughtson digitallegacy, themafia and thefuture ofarchiving.Read MoreAlthough a “considerable number” prevented Hathcock fromattending the University’s daytime classes, she was aformidable person in her own right. In a Jan. 20, 1967, DaytonDaily News article, Hathcock noted that the first time sheapplied to the University of Dayton, she was rejected on thebasis of race, though her later e!orts proved successful. Theletter from Muench would not be the only time that Du Boisencountered Hathcock’s name; correspondence betweenHathcock and Du Bois spanned from 1925 to 1951. She was incharge of a committee that brought Du Bois to Dayton inFebruary 1940 to speak on “Democracy and the DarkerRaces.” She corresponded with Du Bois directly, sending hima telegram on Feb. 23, 1948, for his 80th birthday,congratulating him on “the richness of your years and thefullness of your life and your friendship.” Hathcock taught inthe Dayton Public Schools for many years, retiring in 1964,but continued to serve the city through her work on theDayton Council on World A!airs, the City Beautiful Council,the Wegerzyn Garden Board, the American Association ofUniversity Women and the Dayton and Miami ValleyCommittee for UNICEF. In 1978, the University of Daytonawarded her an honorary doctorate, and in 2018, she wasrecognized again during Women’s History Month. The University’s answer to Du Bois in 1930 is but one of manyindicators that racial segregation and employmentdiscrimination were by no means Southern phenomena in the20th century; they were alive and well in Dayton and acrossthe Midwest. Want ads in the Dayton Daily News and theDayton Herald contained explicit race preferences; realestate ads specified racial exclusion; and swimming poolsand schools were segregated, along with restaurants,theaters and hotels. Decades later, segregation remains; in2016, the Brookings Institution found that the Daytonmetropolitan area was the 14th-most segregated largemetropolitan area in the nation. At the time of Du Bois’ inquiry, though UD had no specificpolicy about race in admission, the subtext until the 1940swas clear: With very limited exception, African Americanstudents admitted to the University would attend eveningclasses.Today, as we contend with making the campus a morediverse, equitable and inclusive place for all, we alsoacknowledge the history of segregation that surrounds us.— Heidi Gauder is a professor in the University Libraries andcoordinator of research and instruction. Caroline Waldron isan associate professor of history. Kristina Schulz, Universityarchivist and coordinator of special collections, alsocontributed to this story.POSTSCRIPTSW.E.B. Du Bois is a noted civil rights activist in 20th-centuryAmerican history. The University of Massachusetts AmherstSpecial Collections describes him thusly: “Scholar, writer,editor of The Crisis and other journals, co-founder of theNiagara Movement, the NAACP, and the Pan African Congress,international spokesperson for peace and for the rights ofoppressed minorities, W.E.B. Du Bois was a son ofMassachusetts who articulated the strivings of AfricanAmericans and developed a trenchant analysis of theproblem of the color line in the 20th century.”The Crisis magazine describes itself on its website as a“quarterly journal of politics, culture, civil rights and historythat seeks to educate and challenge its readers about issuesfacing African-Americans and other communities of color.” Itwas founded in 1910 and is the o"cial magazine of theNAACP.The University of Dayton began as St. Mary’s School for Boysin 1850; it was incorporated as a college in 1878 andcontinued to educate at the elementary, preparatory andpost-secondary levels until the late 1930s, at which point ito!ered only collegiate-level programs.SOURCESLetter,! “Dr. DuBois to Give Talks Here.” Dayton Daily News,February 16, 1940, p. 30.! Hathcock, Jessie. Telegram from Jessie Hathcock toW.E.B. Du Bois, February 23, 1948. W.E.B. Du Bois Papers(MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives,University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b119-i019! Morrow, Pat. “Retired Teacher Refurbishes House andPeople.” Dayton Daily News, January 20, 1967, p. 21.! Schulz, Kristina. “Jessie Hathcock.” Women of UD exhibit,2018. University of Dayton Women’s Center.https://udayton.edu/womenscenter/education/whm/whm18/hathcock.php! Sweigart, Josh. “50 Years Ago, West Dayton Boiled Over.”Dayton Daily News, September 4, 2016, p. 1.! “The Year in Negro Education. 1930.” The Crisis. August,1930, p. 262-268. https://books.google.com/books?id=zVcEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA257&pg=PA262#v=onepage&q&f=false! University of Dayton. Letter from the University of Daytonto W.E.B. Du Bois, June 13, 1930. W.E.B. Du Bois Papers(MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives,University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b184-i578! University of Dayton. Register of Students, 1925-1940.University Archives.Letter,1930University ofDayton. Letterfrom theUniversity ofDayton to W.E.B.Du Bois, June 13,1930. W.E.B. DuBois Papers (MS312). SpecialCollections andUniversityArchives,University ofMassachusettsAmherstLibraries.https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b184-i578Share    Topics Libraries Human Rights Diversity andInclusion Campus andCommunity LibrariesAdd the power of personalization to your site in just 30 seconds withAptly, powered by Cerkl.Sign InAbout AptlyAptlyC L O S EWhat's Trending2020: A year to rememberHonorary degree recipient, longtimeDayton community leader John E. 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\u27The Considerable Number of Students\u27: A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois

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\u27The Considerable Number of Students\u27: A Response to W.E.B. Du Bois

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