Upending the Ivory Tower. Stefan M. Bradley

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СКАЧАТЬ the beginning of the twentieth century, the brother of famed black Renaissance man and the town of Princeton’s own Paul Robeson attempted to make an application at Princeton University. The university president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, refused his application even after the town of Princeton’s most popular black minister, William Drew Robeson (Paul Robeson’s father) of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, appealed to Wilson personally. Historically, black ministers acted as liaisons between black and white communities, which had typically been the case in the town of Princeton. With regard to the Reverend Robeson’s son’s application for admission, however, the tacit relationship between the black clergy and white institutional power meant nothing. Paul Robeson resented Princeton University’s treatment of his brother and father for the rest of his life.

      Princeton, as a northern town and an elite university, was as segregated as any place below the Mason-Dixon Line for much of its history. Although black students met with cold receptions when they arrived at the seven other American Ivy League universities, they could at least attend those schools. Unlike those fortunate students who attended the seven other Ivies, African American students could not attend Princeton in earnest until the middle of the twentieth century. For that reason, Princeton University earned the unique reputation of being what one might describe as southern-most Ivy as it took on the culture of the Old South.1 One can understand how engulfing racism was in this nation’s history by studying the experience of black people at Princeton University—a premiere institution of education.

      Those associated with Princeton University and other elite Ivy League schools can proudly say that their students, faculty, and administrators go on to literally lead the nation in terms of politics, culture, and economics. For instance, presidents of Princeton University signed the Declaration of Independence and created the Fourteen Points Plan and one need not look any further than recent American presidents and U.S. Supreme Court justices for the contemporary influence of the Ivy League.2 With that in mind, Princeton affiliates boast that their university is “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”3 In essence, Ivy League universities represent at times the best and most powerful aspects of America. The standards that these universities use to select students and the curricula that the Ivy institutions establish trickle down in various forms to institutions of higher education throughout the nation and the world.4 Although Princeton University and its peers are among the oldest and most prestigious American universities, in some ways these institutions had to be led into a new era of freedom for black people and social justice. In the twentieth century, students and progressive-minded school officials, as well as social movements led to Princeton’s acceptance of black students, the establishment of its Black Studies curriculum, and the school’s stand against apartheid South Africa.

      Although there is rich scholarly literature surrounding Princeton University in general, surprisingly little has been written about Princeton and its historic relationship with black people. Carl A. Fields, who came to Princeton as an administrator in 1964, published his memoirs of his tenure at Princeton. Recently, Melvin McCray, a black alumnus, produced a documentary titled Looking Back: Reflections of Black Princeton Alumni that covers the topic. Jerome Karabel, in The Chosen (2005), discussed Princeton’s struggle to attract a certain type of student that did not include African Americans and even Jews at one point.5 Marcia Synnott and Geoffrey Kabaservice wrote about admissions and the leadership at Princeton. Then, James Axtell constructed a history of the New Jersey Ivy institution. Comprehensive in many aspects, Axtell’s history neglects the role of black people in shaping Princeton. Several articles in university publications have focused on the arrival of black students to campus, but the evolution from black admissions to the campus activism of black students remains generally absent.

      When scholars of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement discuss the protests and demonstrations that took place in the state of New Jersey, they typically mention the unrest that occurred in Newark during the urban uprisings of 1967.6 Some remember the student protests that occurred at Rutgers University during the period.7 But less attention has been paid to the student demonstrations that took place on the beautifully landscaped campus of Princeton University in the late 1960s. Although there were no snipers atop buildings and no tanks maneuvering through campus, as was the case during the Newark uprising, students on Princeton’s campus took up the cause of the black freedom movement in their own way. This chapter seeks to illuminate the role that students, particularly African American students, played in transforming Princeton University using agitation that was inspired in part by the activism off campus. Black students and administrators as well as white university officials were keenly aware of what occurred in the nearby townships. By the end of the 1960s, black students, with the assistance of liberal university officials, were able to improve Princeton University’s relationship with black people domestically and abroad with their campus campaigns. The progress that black students made at Princeton was squarely in the context of the urban uprisings in the Northeast as well as the organizing efforts of the Black Power Movement that was underway.

      Of its Ivy League counterparts, Princeton, in terms of culture, was certainly closest to the American Old South that fostered strict racial separation and blatant stereotypes. Several of the university’s early trustees owned slaves, and during the antebellum period nearly half of the student body consisted of southerners, which was more than other Ivy League institutions at the time. One of the university’s presidents, John MacLean, held membership with the American Colonization Society, which encouraged the deportation of black people for the sake of the nation. In that sense, the school had a long, entangled history with black people and Jim Crow policies.8

      As did many of the Ivy League institutions, Princeton originated with unofficial ties to religious groups. The Presbyterian Church helped to establish the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University.9 Adhering to the mission of Christianity, the college trained men (Princeton University did not become coeducational until 1969) to enter the Presbyterian ministry. By 1774, two African students attended Princeton Theological Seminary (which was technically separate from the university) for “preparatory work” preceding a trip to Africa for missionary work.10 Although enrolled for several years, the aforementioned students, Bristol Yamma and John Quamine, left without graduating. The September 25, 1792, minutes of Princeton’s Board of Trustees reveals a recommendation that a free black man, John Chavis, study with the president of the university, John Witherspoon.11 After studying with Witherspoon, Chavis later became a Presbyterian minister in North Carolina. Incidentally, two centuries later John Chavis’s descendant Benjamin Chavis became the executive director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and eventually a minister with the Nation of Islam.12

      Princeton as a town allowed slavery, and enslaved people were present on Princeton University’s campus. One Princeton student turned in a black man he recognized in the town of Princeton for violating the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793.13 A relative of former university president John Witherspoon eventually paid to manumit the escaped slave, but the culture of the university permitted those who favored the peculiar institution. As one observer noted about its relationship to black people, “she [Princeton] has not measured up to the Christian standard in her attitude.” The observer claimed that this owed largely “to the proslavery spirit … caused by Southern slave holders, who settled in and about the place.”14

      In the years after slavery ended, Princeton continued to confront challenges regarding the presence of black people on campus. During Reconstruction black men came to campus not as enslaved servants but as potential students. By 1876, four black men were attending Princeton’s Theological Seminary. As was custom, the university permitted seminary students to attend courses. When one of the black students, Daniel Culp, entered a psychology course on Princeton’s campus, some of the white students rebelled. A southern newspaper reported the presence of this black student upset “some representatives from the ‘Sunny South’ ” so much that the southerners chose to exit the lectures.15 Subsequently, several of those southern white students left the university in protest of the black student’s presence. The rebelling students later requested to be readmitted when the university president refused to expel the black student.16 Twenty years later, Alexander СКАЧАТЬ