, 1951-06-11
A Story OF Interruciu| Progress
(From Opportunity News)

Ohio, in 1884, and in a QuestlOnnalre about racial at
titudes circulated among students in that year, IS percent
of them said they would not eat at the same table with
a Negro. Today, the schools active Race Relations Com
mittee sponsors an Interracial Scholarship Fund which is
helping a dozen Negro students at the college.
The Committee, and the interracial enrolment at
the school, owe their existence to years of intensive self
examination and campaigning by growing numbers OF
students and faculty. Admission of Negroes to the col
lege was not a reluctant concession to a popular trend, but
rather, the result of a profound understanding OF the
need.
In 1910 a committee was established by the student
body to inquire into the colleges admissions policies and
find out why there were no Negroes enrolled. AS describ-
ed by Mrs. Jessie Treichler, Assistant to the President,
the group found that the problem went deeper than col
lege policy when the Director of Admissions said, with
great honesty and justice, that they couldn't admit Ne
gro students when they had no applications from Negro
students, and that with limited funds for publicity, they
could not direct their publicity solely to one minority
group, something that would have to be done if the i'm
preston were to be broken down that Antioch was a lily
white institution"
When the committee set out to get applications from
Negro students, they soon discovered that because of the
great difference in the economic base between Negroes
and whites, qualified students interested in Antioch could
not afford it. AS a result, they started a scholarship fund
to bridge this gap and to equalize opportunities for enroll
ment in the college.
Hubert Marshall, chairman of the Race Relations
time, the committee in 1916, continues the sorry: "At a
time the committee subjected Antioch itself to searching
scrutiny. Charges of discrimination in the tearoom and
cafeteria were investigated and found untrue. College hir-
ing policies were reviewed and found acceptable.
''The Race Relations Committee worked with the
Assembly Committee to bring a number of speakers to the
campus. The committee reviewed the Antioch curriculum
with an eye to including factual material on race relations
in as many courses as possible. Through residence hall
discussions and bulletin boards, the committee kept the
campus Informed about legislation and other issues affect
ing race relations. Finally, in 1915, the committee, with
the help and approval of the entire community, drafted
and published a statement of Antioch's philosophy on
race relations, NO One Group"
One of Antiochs former students described what the
experience made possible by the committee's work meant
to her:
Growing up in mixed neighborhoods, going to mix
ed elementary high schools, and then going to college at a
mixed Antioch has helped to develop me along the lines
of symmetry, for which Antioch still strives, perhaps to a
greater degree than any other single factor in my back
ground.
Segregated environments, l have since learned,
through some of my work experiences at Antioch, are u-
realistic doges of actuality, breeding fear, prejudice, sus-
picion and hate.
II have been fortunate enough also to understand
that, first of all, as a human being, and secondly, as a
Negro, | cannot face the world and the problems which
are a part of it by turning my back to the problems or
burying my head in the sand when l choose to live in
segregated environment, learn in segregated schools, or
teach in segregated schools.