Black History and Activism at Washington University in St. Louis
When I arrived as a freshman at WashU in St. Louis, the events held by the Association for Black Students were my introduction to the larger black community at my school. It was only until I began my research on Black History at WashU that I understood the Association of Black Students’ long history in activism at the University. It was the primary black student group issuing demands and voicing the need for significant racial change from the administration for decades. Today, the culture of activism, protest, and political organizing persists among black students, especially among local student organizers. For example, undergraduate student Brianna Chandler, who was featured in The New York Times and in Rolling Stone, is involved in organizing protests surrounding racial justice and climate change issues.[i] However, the ways in which activism is enacted by black students on campus has changed significantly over time.
While some of WashU’s graduate schools admitted black students, the undergraduate college did not admit black students until 1954, following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in the same year.[ii] The Student Committee for the Admission of Negroes, comprised of white WashU students, advocated for the administration of black students. SCAN was most active in 1949, when it polled 2,283 university students whether they supported the admission of black undergraduates. 1767 students supported It, while 516 opposed.[iii] To put that in context, music professor and composer Olly Wilson, estimates that there were approximately 3,000 undergraduate students when he began his undergraduate studies at WashU in the fall of 1955.[iv] In his HistoryMakers interview, he recounts his admittance into the WashU music school while it was still segregated.
When the first group of blacks arrived as undergrads in the fall 1955, Wilson remembers that there were only about 7 or 8 of them.[v] One of the few other black students in that class is also in the HistoryMakers archive: entrepreneur and investment chief executive Frank Greene.[vi] Following desegregation of the undergraduate college, the issue of lacking diversity persisted in the graduate schools. After James L. Sweatt, the first African American to graduate from WashU’s Medical School, graduated in 1962, it would be another 10 years until another black student even enrolled in the medical school.[vii] The issue persisted in other graduate programs. Clayton W. Bates Jr. and future president of Morehouse College, Walter E. Massey, were the only black people in the graduate physics program.[viii]
Black students organizing and protesting made a headway amid the Black power movement, growing social unrest, increased enrollment of black students at universities, and student protests around the country. In 1968, the Association of Black Collegians was formed. The student group worked to bring attention to the harassment of black students, the ignorance of the experiences of black students, segregation among the university’s service workers, and low enrollment of black students. In 1968, black students made up only 1.8% of the student body.[ix] Shortly after the formation of ABC, black graduate student Elbert Walton was arrested by WashU police on non-university property following his purported inability to produce a parking pass.[x][xi] In response, black students occupied the security office in Busch Hall. The occupation moved to North Brookings Hall and lasted for 8 days, during which black students spoke with administrators and developed a list of demands, many if which would be included in the first Black Manifesto issued shortly after.[xii][xiii]
The main demands of the first Black Manifesto were for the creation of a black studies program, an increase of black faculty, an increase the number of black students to 25% of the undergraduate population, an increase in financial aid for black students, and greater sensitivity towards the experiences of black students at the University.[xiv] The black studies program was created shortly after in 1969, but it did not gain full departmental status until very recently, in 2017. Professor and HistoryMaker Jack Arnett Williams, who founded the Economic Development Concentration at WashU’s School of Social Work, discusses how black studies at times had trouble keeping faculty because the program was not given full departmental status.[xv]
Revised Black Manifestos were issued in 1978, 1983, and 1998. The later versions reduced the demand for an increase of the black undergrad population from 25% to 13%.[xvi] Over time, the black undergraduate population increased from under 2% and fluctuated between 5% and 7% for many years, until stabilizing at 7% in 2015.[xvii] Marathon runner Anthony Reed, who was an undergrad in the 1970s, recounts the persistent frustration in the WashU black community around the still low number of black students.[xviii] Today, the black undergraduate population is at 11%.
Striving to support the needs and desires for black students on an overwhelmingly white campus, black student groups created the Black Student Guide in the early 1970s. It included a list of places for black students to order food, shop, and get their hair done in the St. Louis area. It also included a list of course offerings that had interested black students. [xix] Part of the goal of the Black Student Guide was to help other black students navigate and stay safe within the landscape of racial tensions at the university and in St. Louis. The racism that students face obviously persist today, and the efforts by black student to protect and support each other continue. For example, GroupMe provides a platform for black students to seek guidance from the community. And ABS is still involved in activism, as well. After Clayton police officers pursued 10 black students falsely accused of dining and dashing at a local restaurant in 2018, ABS demanded an apology from the Clayton Chief of Police and for the police department to implement training to prevent racial profiling and illegal stops.
The preservation of our history, and our history of activism in this country, is crucial to our conservation of identity in the face of efforts to dehumanize us through erasure. The Henry Hampton special collection at WashU is a piece of that crucial and ongoing project of preservation. Henry Hampton; black filmmaker and founder of the black production company Blackside Inc., known for his production of Eyes on The Prize; graduated from WashU in 1961. The special collection in his name includes full interviews and transcripts from Eyes on the Prize and The Great Depression.[xx] Some of Blackside Inc.’s Video footage and equipment was actually stored in Henry Hampton’s archive at WashU to save it from seizure from by Boston Police while the company was suffering financial difficulties.[xxi] Television producer and journalism professor June Cross tells the story in her HistoryMakers interview.
WashU has begun to investigate its historical ties to slavery. While William Greenleaf Eliot, who founded the University and served as its first chancellor, was a loyal abolitionist; many of the University’s early benefactors profited considerably from slavery.[xxii] In fact, the Danforth campus, which was built in the 1890s as the University moved from downtown St. Louis to its current home adjacent to Forest Park, is built on land on which people were enslaved.
[i] https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/sunrise-stl-brianna-chandler-khalea-edwards-blm-1072452/
[ii] Olly Wilson (The HistoryMakers A2005.243), interviewed by Loretta Henry, October 14, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 2, Olly Wilson recalls applying to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
[iii] 1767 Pro, 516 Con, in SCAN’s Poll on Fall Negro Entrance,” Student Life (Washington University), May 10, 1949. From the article on SCAN
[iv] Olly Wilson (The HistoryMakers A2005.243), interviewed by Loretta Henry, October 14, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 2, Olly Wilson recalls applying to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
[v] Ibid
[vi] Frank Greene, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2002.036), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, March 31, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 16, Frank Greene describes his experiences attending Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
[vii] https://source.wustl.edu/2015/12/first-in-class/
[viii] Clayton W. Bates, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2004.016), interviewed by Racine Tucker Hamilton, March 5, 2004, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 5, Clayton W. Bates, Jr. talks about earning his Ph.D. degree in physics from Washington University
[ix] https://libguides.wustl.edu/c.php?g=844829&p=6072511
[x] https://www.studlife.com/scene/2020/02/26/black-history-month-notable-moments-since-the-first-black-manifesto/
[xi] https://libguides.wustl.edu/c.php?g=844829&p=6072511
[xii] Ibid
[xiv] Ibid
[xv] Jack Arnett Kirkland (The HistoryMakers A2007.288), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 6, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 7, story 1, Jack Arnett Kirkland describes the start of the black studies program at Washington University in St. Louis
[xvi] https://www.studlife.com/scene/2020/02/26/black-history-month-notable-moments-since-the-first-black-manifesto/
[xvii] Ibid
[xviii] Anthony Reed (The HistoryMakers A2013.027), interviewed by Larry Crowe, January 28, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 2, Anthony Reed recalls enrolling at Washington University in St. Louis in Missouri
[xix] https://news.stlpublicradio.org/education/2015-12-10/the-more-things-change-a-guide-for-black-college-students-circa-1973-is-surprisingly-relevant
[xx] https://library.wustl.edu/spec/henry-hampton-collection/
[xxi] June Cross (The HistoryMakers A2012.159), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 30, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 8, story 5, June Cross talks about Blackside, Inc.'s financial difficulties
[xxii] https://source.wustl.edu/2021/04/washington-university-joins-universities-studying-slavery-consortium/