THE COLOUR LINE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 87, 12 April 1923, Page 4

THE COLOUR LINE

AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES

NEGROES REFUSED ADMISSION.

Publication by the New York '.'World" of correspondence exchanged between A. Lawrence Lowell, president of Harvard University, and Roscop- Oonkling Bruce, ono of Harvard's most; distinguished negro graduates., regarding admission of the latter's son to the freshman "dormitories" at Harvard, has brought the question of the colour line in the North to the fore once more, and has raised a tempest among Harvard graduates, states an American correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian." President Lowell insists that since residence in the freshman dormitories is in theory compulsory for all first-year students negroes cannot be admitted. That would, ho eays, mean "forcing the negro and the white man into social relations which are not, or may not be, mutually congenial."

Harvard is, of course, the traditional centre of Northern idealism. Nowhere else is the tradition of the Civil War held more- sacred. The main eating-hall of the university is Memorial Hall, dedicated to the men who died in the waj that set American negroes free. Robert Gould Shaw, who fell at the head of the first negro regiment from Massachusets, and-whose fine memorial relief by Augustus St. Gaudens graces Boston Common, was of the HarFard class of 1860. Harvard had always opened all of her dormitories and eating-hallg to negro students without question until the inauguration of the compulsory fresHmandormitory system some ten years ago. In this equal treatment she is followed by Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, and most other Northern universities. / During the war two negroes slipped into the freshman halls in Harvard and were allowed to stay. It may be remarked that no protest was made by the other students. But in the autumn of 1921 two negroes were barred. They protested; President Lowell refused to heed them. Then a group of graduates quietly took up the matter, drawing up a memorial which was signed by some 150 graduates, mostly of the older classes (the lißt included every surviving member of Robert Gould Shaw's class). This was presented to President Lowell last autumn, and in January he met the group responsible for the memorial, and again refused to change the Harvard policy. Then followed publication of the protest,, and of the LowelJBruce correspondence, and the tempest. The tempest was the stronger because of the stir caused last spring when Mr. Lowoil's desire to limit the proportion of Jews entering Harward to 15 per cent, becamo known.

When the Jewish question came up the Harvard Faculty .and the Overseers of the University overruled Mr. Lowell and referred the problem for study to a committee which, it is understood, will report adversely to limitation. In the case of negroes he made an administrative ruling which has not yet come befor the governing boards of the university. It is reported that some of the leading 1 overseers have asked Mr. Lowell to call a special meeting to reconsider the ruling.

Meanwhile publication of. President Lowell's letters defending his pogition, and of Roscoe Bruce's replies, has led to much public discussion of the question. The New York "World".and the "Evening Post" denounced Mr. Lowell's administration, President-Emeritus Eliot, who is past" 85, broke his long silence to say, "I am opposed to every form of racial discrimination in the universities of our heterogeneous democracy. Any such discrimination would" violate very precious Harvard traditions." Congressman Hamilton Fish, once captain of a famous Harvard football team, and John Jay Chapman, of the class of 1875, the .historian, have emphatically echoed his condemnation of Mr. Lowell's action. In fact the protest has been surprisingly vigorous. I know that it has surprised the members of the committee which drew up the memorial last year without great hope of success, and I believe that it has even more surprised Mr. Lowell.