Is this true?
I came across a disturbing bit of trivia today, but I don’t know if it’s true. According to a Gore press release during the 2000 presidential campaign, BJU banned African-American students as late as 1970. This claim is corroborated by Wikipedia, which states:
From its 1927 founding to 1971, black people were prohibited from enrolling. From 1971 to 1975, only unmarried black people were permitted to apply to the school. After the 1975 court decision of McCrary v. Runyon, which prohibited racial exclusion from private schools, the policy was changed. Other public colleges in the south had similar policies at that time, including Clemson University who did not admit their first black student until 1965.
Is that true?
…
Of course, that would put BJU only a little behind the rest of the country; MLK was assassinated in 1968.
It really is interesting to see how quickly racial discrimination has fallen off. There are still instances here and there of course, but in two generations, racism has gone from being the normal way of thinking to being regarded as backwards, xenophobic, stupid, and just plain wrong by most Americans.
Good.
July 17th, 2005 at 10:04 pm
When I was there from 1976 - 1980 there was one black male - he was in my society - Phi Beta. He was a married town student.
Jeremy - I would challenge you to ask your black co-workers if they agreed with you that racism has quickly fallen off.
July 17th, 2005 at 11:07 pm
I imagine they’d know more instances of racism than I would, but the fact is that things are infinitely better today than they were thirty years ago. There’s been a tremendous amount of progress made: society has gone from regarding black people as second class citizens, even down to separate bathrooms and water fountains and bus seats, to regarding them as equals.
I won’t deny that there are still problems with racism in our society, both with implicit, unconscious racism among respectable people and explicit, blatant racism among lowlife scum like the KKK, but it’s certainly no longer a respectable worldview.
July 18th, 2005 at 8:31 am
Dr. Bob said much the same thing in his interview with Larry King when he dropped the policy. Here is an excerpt:
From http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/03/lkl.00.html
Also, an article interviewing BJ’s first black student is here: http://www.bju.edu/collegian/index.php?content=article&article_id=20&issue_volume=17&issue_number=9
I agree that the situation is much better than it was in the 60s, though there is still a long way to go in society.
July 18th, 2005 at 9:33 am
Yes, overt racism of a certain type is not “respectable” and the wearing of white sheets is pretty universally scorned, but if it were not for the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Act, the Fair Housing Act, etc. how different would things really be. In other words, have people really changed or are they just obeying the law?
I would still strongly recommend you ask your co-workers what they feel.
August 13th, 2005 at 10:18 pm
Man, you just have no idea. I agree with Gordo - ask your co-workers. Sometime you need to visit my Civil War blog. I haven’t been able to update it recently, but as soon as I get the chance, it will be.