Posted on 09/23/2007 10:41:26 AM PDT by topher
People think of the Deep South as a place prejudice and racism. This story is one of how a South Louisiana college quietly integrated to the point that almost no one seemed to notice...
A lawsuit in March of 1954 allowed black students to attend college in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the September of 1954.
This was a situation where integration occurred peacefully.
However, many whites involved do not understand how hard it was for a handful of black students to attend this college.
SLI [Southwestern Louisiana Institute] later became the University of Southwestern Louisiana and is now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
To keep the MEDIA out of this, the president of the college, Joel Fletcher did not give out numbers of black students attending the college.
The Catholic presence in South Louisiana was a major factor in the success of the integration process.
In fact, it is a historically recorded fact that the only place on campus that white and black students could mix at this time was the Catholic Student Center.
The reason that even though this integration was successful, it was a time that blacks had to use COLORED RESTROOMS and COLORED DRINKING FOUNTAINS in public places.
However, this did not occur at this college at this time.
By the late 1960s and early 1970s, the college, now a University, could recruit black athletes from Northern states. In fact, in the early 1970s, for this reason, the college basketball program at one time had six legitamate pro prospects: Bo Lamar [All American Guard], Roy Ebron [a Center Sports Illustrated lavished high praises on after his sophmore year], Freddie Saunders [who later played for the Boston Celtics], "Tree" Lofton, Jerry Bisbano [a 6'6" white guard], and Larry Fogle.
At the same time that this time was fielded at this college [then called University of Southwestern Louisian], LSU had an all-white athletic program.
One can imagine how it would be for a person raised in an all black school and used to having to obey the rule of having to used colored restrooms and drinking fountains to attend a college back in 1954 in the Deep South.
I imagine there were remarks made to the students. But fortunately, there were no altercations during the process of allowing more and more black students to attend this college.
The following is a press release the University issued on the 5oth Anniversary of the time of the desegragation:
ULL Press Release: 50 YEARS LATER: THE DESEGREGATION OF SLIThere were still problems at that time, as the press release reports, as the black students chose to live off campus initially.Contact: Christine Payton
Sept. 1, 2004
(337) 482-6397, payton@louisiana.edu
50 YEARS LATER: THE DESEGREGATION OF SLI
In the early 1960s, college campuses throughout the South became battlegrounds as the U.S. Justice Department sent federal troops to enforce integration.
At Ole Miss in the fall of 1962, a crowd of 2,000 angry whites sparred with federal marshals over the admission of James Meredith, who was black. Two people would be killed, 28 marshals would be shot and another 160 would be injured in the chaos.
But eight years before, there was no bloodshed when four black students were granted admission to Southwest Louisiana Institute. Later events on other campues would overshadow the relative peace in which the college was integrated a half century ago, becoming the first previously all-white, state-supported college or university in the South to allow blacks to enroll.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the university’s integration, UL Lafayette’s History and Geography Department will sponsor “Fifty Years Later: Commemorating the Desegregation of Southwestern Louisiana Institute” on Sept. 10 and 11.
“ The arrival of eighty African-Americans on the SLI campus in September 1954 marked the earliest large-scale desegregation of a previously all-white, public institution of higher education in the Deep South,” said Dr. Michael Martin, an assistant professor of history and coordinator of the symposium. “SLI’s relatively smooth desegregation stands in sharp contrast to many later university integrations.”
A Louisiana law enacted in the 1800s prohibited blacks and whites from sharing facilities. In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that state law—sanctioning segregation—when it ruled in the landmark case of Plessy v. Ferguson.
That meant that if SLI had allowed blacks to register, it would have been in violation of state law. And, even after the courts ordered desegregation of the institute, SLI administrators were forced to suspend admission of blacks after being told by Lafayette Parish District Attorney Bertrand DeBlanc that he would file charges against any school breaking the law.
Today, an academic scholarship awarded to African-American students pays tribute to SLI’s first black graduate, Christiana Smith, Class of 1956. But the movement to integrate SLI began three years earlier, when four black students—Clara Dell Constantine, Martha Conway, Shirley Taylor and Charles Vincent Singleton— were prohibited from registering at the university and filed suit.
The case of Constantine v. SLI was part of the NAACP’s lengthy campaign to desegregate southern colleges and universities. For the four individuals who filed the lawsuit, their involvement in the integration struggle was both personal and for a larger good.
On July 16, 1954, as a result of Constantine v. SLI, the courts prohibited SLI President Joel Fletcher and Registrar James Stewart Bonnet from refusing to admit any resident of southwest Louisiana on the basis of race or color.
Six days later, John Harold Taylor of Arnaudville successfully registered at SLI without incident, the first black student admitted to the college. By September of 1954 when classes began, 80 blacks were in attendance and no disturbances were recorded.
Racial integration may have occurred at SLI without the violence and bloodshed some expected, but the relationship between black and white students was largely uneasy, according to reports. In the early days, the presence of black students was tolerated but they remained on the fringes of college life, not eating or residing with white students, and not participating in campus activities.
Most black students commuted to SLI by bus, attended class, and retreated to the buses when not in class. Other problems arose. For instance, swimming classes were discontinued because the local public pool was not integrated.
SLI’s Catholic Student Center was reportedly one of the first havens for black students. In April of 1956, blacks and whites attended the Gulf States Newman Club meeting at the Catholic Student Center without incident. This was one of the first integrated functions on campus.
One month later, Christiana Smith made her historic commencement walk with fellow graduates of the Class of 1956. A small group of family and friends attended the ceremony, but Smith said most shied away, afraid their presence would create problems for her.
In an interview for the 30-year anniversary of her graduation, published in USL Alumni News, Smith recalled, “After graduation, anyway, people were coming up to me and congratulating me, so I felt good about that.”
That the integration of SLI occurred relatively smoothly is a matter of record. What is less clear are the reasons why SLI was spared the divisive incidents common on other southern campuses during this period.
Some credit the smooth transition to President Joel Fletcher, who avoided publicity, encouraged cooperation, and refused to comment on the court decision. Fletcher also refused to record students’ race so that he had no figures to release on the number of black students attending SLI during the transition years.
When it became apparent that desegregation would take place, Fletcher toured the state, calling on influential citizens to assist in making the transition a smooth one. Faculty interviewed by the USL Oral History Project reported that the college established a campus human relations council of faculty and students to address problems black students faced and to work toward solutions.
Some credit the peaceful integration of SLI to the work of the Rev. Alexander O. Sigur of the Catholic Student Center, where black and white students were encouraged to mix.
Others credit Glynn Abel, who served as dean of men when black students first enrolled at SLI in 1954. Abel met with students to solicit their cooperation on integration and other potentially volatile events, such as the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and received it.
Abel said he told both races, “Nothing’s going to happen. Everything’s going to be all right.” To the black students, he said, “This is new to you and it’s new to us. I want it to work.” They told him, “Dean, if you’ll handle the whites, we’ll handle the blacks.” Abel gave credit to the students, saying they solved 90 perce
SLI may have been spared the violence and protests often associated with integration, but the peaceful transition does not mean integration was achieved without struggle and at no cost to black and white students, faculty, administrators and the community.
However, the fact that no blood was shed on SLI’s campus is a testament to all at SLI and in the community who took leadership roles, often at personal cost, to ensure the safety and dignity of all who shared the dream of obtaining an education without regard for color.
However, if one were to say that racism is a problem that always been a problem in Louisiana, this example illustrated that some communities, notably the small college in Lafayette, Louisiana, succeeded in quietly integrating the college.
It should be acknowledged that the first black students probably did have a rough time from a handful of students maybe calling them names or glaring at them with looks of racial hatred.
Or maybe part of the problem is that because of desegragation, white and black students had not mingled before.
This event happened so quietly that it is hard to find good information on this wonderful story...
In a sense, it was considered a non-story for the college -- just allow other students to attend the college and make no big deal about that...
Ironically, it is the story of the Alma Mater of the Current Governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, and also my Alma Mater...
Even though I knew of racial problems in High School, the college in the same town had no problems as it had been integrated almost 20 years before...
This is the story of one of the first colleges in the Deep South to be integrated back in 1954...
It went so smoothly that it went under the radar for people to even realize that it happened so long ago.
This is contrast to the Jena, Louisiana media coverage and how outside people are causing trouble in Louisiana.
When the media tried to do this 50 years ago at this college, the college president refused to give numbers of students that were black that were attending -- to make this a non-issue.
At the same time that this time was fielded at this college [then called University of Southwestern Louisiana], LSU had an all-white athletic program.
Should read:
At the same time that this TEAM was fielded at this college [then called University of Southwestern Louisian], LSU had an all-white athletic program.
It is my understanding that LSU admitted 8 black students in the summer of ‘61....I met one of them.
What a nice article, topher.
Thank you for writing it.
It’s a piece of history that I didn’t know existed.
I used to work at ULL for a bit, nice school.
The difference here is that Louisiana really is three different states; Northern Louisiana which is culturally Southern, Southern Louisiana which is culturally Creole/Cajun, and New Orleans which is...well New Orleans.
I haven’t heard nowhere near the number of racial problems in the Southern as opposed to the Northern part of the state.
LSU did not have to admit blacks at that time. Southern University was formed as a black only college in Baton Rouge.
Part of the Lawsuit against SLI was there was no black college for students to attend in Lafayette, LA and surrounding areas...
One of the first black students at SLI graduated in 1956.
It is my belief that there was considerable bigotry at LSU until the 1970s. I don't think too many blacks played for LSU in the early 1970s or even in the 1960s. Yearbook photos would either prove or disprove this.
It is unfortunate that you had to endure that, but maybe you will fight against racial bigotry by blacks or whites.
Boston, Massachusetts, in the 1970s, was one of a city that many racial problems and prejudice against people (prejudice against Catholics has long been a part of Boston history).
People who may have followed the Boston Celtics may remember it was one of the few NBA teams in the 1970s to be dominated by white players. They had fielded a championship lineup that was white: Danny Ainge at Guard, Dave Cowens at Center, Kevin Mchale at Forward, as well Larry Bird (who may have come after the Dave Cowens era).
There are people who may consider the Deep South to be a place great racial prejudice where there are other places that have racial problems.
I’ve lived in Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, before.
I don’t know much about the northern part of the state, though.
You are correct in that New Orleans is like a little country unto itself.
Things are very different down there.
I suppose you and I are about the same age.
I remember Boston in the 70s, and the troubles they had.
I remember the Celtics, too.
I’m from a small city in Mississippi.
There were few problems in the public schools until forced busing.
Those of us in the former “white” high school didn’t have problems, though.
We were already in an integrated high school.
However, over Christmas break in ‘69, and with no warning, the feds shut down the black school system.
Needless to say, the blacks in town were very angry about that.
Can’t say that I blame them...
Unfortunately, many still believe that the Deep South is full of racial prejudice.
In my travels all over the country, and in places that I’ve lived outside the South,
I can honestly say I’ve found that they are very, very wrong.
Oh...one thing that I found out this summer is that the Brits really do hate the French. ;o)
Bigotry of any kind is wrong. I simply brought it up to remind people we are all capable of it, no one race has the monoply on being wired right. We are all just as messed up and just as well put together as the other.
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