A CELEBRATION OF 60 YEARS OF STUDENT ACTIVISM IN PURSUIT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE AT BENNETT COLLEGE 1937-1997 VOLUME 1 FALL 1998 THE BENNETT COLLEGE SOCIAL JUSTICE LECTURE SERIES A PROJECT OF THE HISTORYPROGRAM AND THEWOMEN'S LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE WITHFUNDING FROM THE NORTH CAROLINA HUMANITIES COUNCIL SMITH REYNOLDS FOUNDATION Z. ??" © THE BENNETT COLLEGE SOCIAL JUSTICE LECTURE SERIES Dedicated to the men and women ofBennett College, whofor one hundred and twenty-five years have been "Guided but by honor bright" Editedby MillicentE. Brown, Ph.D. Associate Professor History Lea E.Williams, Ed.D. Executive Director Women's Leadership Institute Founders Day Vesper Sunday, October 11, 1998 DearReader: We are pleased to introduce thefirst volume in The Bennett College Social Justice Lecture Series, which grew out of the week-long Celebration of 60 Years of Student Activism in Pursuit of Social Justice held in October 1997. The Bennett College celebration commemorated tlie 1937 student boycott of local movie tlieaters. This was a bold move given that lynchings were still going on in the South; tlte American economy was in a depression; and war was imminent in Europe. In the midst ofthe national and world turmoil, Bennett women led a boycott of local movie theaters to protest the removal ofscenes that portrayed African- American characters on "an equal basis" with white characters. Backed by their Bennett faculty advisor Dr. R. Nathaniel Dett, a nationally known composer and respected Bennett music instructor, abouta dozen students decided toprotest. The students succeeded in crippling box office sales. After several months oflow attendance, the theater owners acquiesced, exemplifying then, as in the sixties civil rights movement, how transforming can be tlie influence oforganized youth. The tradition ofactivism continued. The Bennett campus was the scene ofmany of the planning meetings for the sit-ins at lunch counters in downtown Greensboro, and its students energetic participants in the ongoing demonstrations that followed tltefateful February 1, 1960 resistance at tlte local Woolworth lunch counter. Through the years, a steady stream ofspeakers has spoken in theAnnie MernerPfeiffer Chapel about socialjustice issues. Three ofthe speeches included in thisfirst volume occurred during the long-running annual Homemaking Institute, which drew numerous individuals of stature advocating civic involvement and responsibility. Bennett has always been a cultural mecca for the African-American community in Greensboro andaforumfordiscussion anddebate. For thefirst volume, we have selectedfive speechesfrom the treasure trove ofpapers and memorabilia in the Bennett College archives and, specifically, the Bennett College African-American Women's Collection. The speeches span theyears 1945 through 1970. Introductions by Millicent E. Brown, Ph.D., Associate Profrssor of History, place the speeches in their historical context. Dr. Brown and Lea E. Williams, Ed.D, Executive Directorof the Women's Leadership Institute, edited the speechesforgrammarandclarity. Sina Gloria R. Scott, Ph.D. President IV Table of Contents Page Willa Beatrice Player "Over the Tumult—The Challenge' February 11, 1959 Eleanor Roosevelt 10 "The Veteran Returns toHis Family" March 20, 1945 Benjamin E. Mays 19 "Creative Livingfor Youth in a Time ofCrisis" March30, 1958 John Hope Franklin 30 "Woman Powerfor the World's Work" March 1961 Jessie Carney Smith 39 "Women's Liberation Movements" April 16, 1970 Willa Beatrice Player (1909- ) "Fora strangeparadox, strife heeds and nourishes exploration and discovery." Mississippi native and Ohio transplant Willa B. Player served as a faculty member at BennettCollege for twenty- six years prior tobeingnamed its Presidentin1956. Many of Dr. Player's relatives were, like her, committed to the work of the Methodist Church and, especially, to the mission of Bennett College. Her sister, Edith Player Brown, composed the music to the school's alma mater, copyrighted in 1940. One niece, Linda Beatrice Brown, Ph.D., is currently a distinguished professor of humanities atthe College. Another niece, Barbara Tazewell, is a part-time instructor in the Department of English and Foreign Languages. Recognized as a humane scholar by innumerable colleges, schools, and organizations, Dr. Player served as president of Bennettfortenyears, havingbeenthe nation's firstblack woman to serve as president of a four-year fully accredited liberal arts college. She resigned the presidency in 1966 to become director of the newly created Division of College Support, U.S. Office of Education, Departmentof Health, Education and Welfare. Other professional affiliations included President of the National Association of Schools and Colleges of the Methodist Church and the Bennett College Board of Trustees. When she stepped down from the Bennett presidency, the Board of Trustees named her PresidentEmerita. As an Ohio Wesleyan graduate, Dr. Player regularly spoke on the campus of her alma mater, sharing her poise, intellect and commitment to education with the broader community. The 1959 speech offered here is representative of Dr. Player's insistence upon truth of the existing human condi- tion, recognitionofthe new waters ofracialharmony yettobe tread, and advocacy of ordered protest. Her conservatism of manner and speech must be contrasted with her standing up for principles offair play. In allowing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak at Bennett when no other college or Greensboro community platform welcomed him, and in supporting the Bennett women who marched, boycotted, and went to jail in the 1960's, Dr. Player's true essence is revealed. Throughout this speech, Dr. Player uses masculine terms to refer to humanity in general. This was a convention of the times, and probably not the language she would use today as presidentofa college forwomen. a "Over the Tumult-The Challenge" Willa Beatrice Player, President, Bennett College deliveredat the Gray Chapel, Ohio Wesleyan University February 11, 1959 Itis a greatprivilege to return to my alma mater on an occasion such as this, to come to the Chapel to refresh a memory of student days which cannot be expressed in words—but in depth of feeling. Since my year of graduation, Ohio Wesleyan has made great advances. One senses behind these, however, the same spirit, the same seeking for truth, and I hope the same duty and reverence for the tasks which lie ahead. I remember Mrs. Murphy, Dr. Matthews, Robo Robinson, Ben Anderson, Duvy Duvall, Miss McQue, Dr. Huser, and especially our beloved Rollie Walker, who always used to say to students that if there was one prayer in his heart each day, it would be: "Dear God, forgive us our stupidity." Humility born of greatness such as this, exhibited in the lives of all of these great teachers, is a heritage which I am sure you take seriously day by day. And I salute you students of today who have the opportunity to study here. am reminded to bring greetings from Bennett College— I community of480 students, 27 states, the District of Columbia, seven foreign countries. The reminder has come from those who participated in the exchange with your students, and from Mary Ellen Bender, who is now an exchange enrollee at Bennett College. We are glad for the relationship which exists between our two institutions. Perhaps it would be valuable at the outset in attempting to think together about the theme, "Over the Tumult—The Challenge," to highlight some of the characteristics of our day. We are fortunate—all of us—to live in a time of striking change and mounting controversy—fortunate, because itis a fact of history that it takes a crisis of staggering proportions to generate within the minds of men the sharp urgency to see beyond the ordinary, into the realm of the fantastic, the ideal, the visionary. We are living in a time of crisis when every aspect of life which we have regarded as permanent has suddenly acquired a tentative status. Man's new outreach into space has created problems for which we have no ready solutions. Startling scientific discovery now makes world destruction so possible, that people everywhere are baffled and beset by fears and anxieties. On every hand the threat of deadly warfare presses in hard upon us as if to squeeze out every heartbeat which yearns to know the happiness of a purposeful peace. The destructive power of one atomic weapon—we are told by Norman Cousins, writing for Saturday Review—is so vast that it could shatter beyond recognition, or restoration, every work of art, every historical document, every medical instrument, every literary gem, every human life, in a matter of seconds. We are not yet too far removed from Hiroshima to realize the absolute truth of this fact inhumanexperience. And so, today we are dangling in anuneasybalance between world deliverance and world destruction. These circumstances have come about so rapidly that we have not had time to close the ever-widening gap between scientific discovery and moral commitment. Although our colleges are desperately re-examining their goals and re-appraising their values, we have notyetfound the solution to the problem of how to establish the appropriate organic relationship between the search for truth and the moral responsibility inherenttherein. We are living in a day when swift changes in circumstances bring about the uprooting and dislocation of families, who preserve their ties—ifindeed there are any—by long distance telephone, short wave radio, or air transport, which is becoming so rapid that it seems almost instantaneous. Many new books andpamphlets callattentionto the role ofwomeninthe world