At midcentury, there were still few black students at Brown, but the university did, at least, have a course that covered the black experience. J. Saunders Redding, who by then had established himself as a scholar, returned to his alma mater as a visiting professor and taught a literature course on the Negro in American literature in the fall of 1949, making him one of the first (if not the first) black professors in the Ivy League. Inasmuch, his course was one of the first of its kind offered at Brown and its peer institutions. Interestingly, a fellow Brown alumnus, Morehouse president John Hope, gave Redding his first opportunity in the professoriate at the historically black college in Atlanta. After a brief unsettling stay at the institution, Redding resigned his position to seek other opportunities. That led him back north to Brown. As a student and as a professor, Redding was one of very few black people on campus.67 In spite of his and his brother’s presence at Brown, Harvard, and Columbia, the early generation of black Ivy Leaguers faced extreme isolation. Redding was able to help other black students ease their transition to elite college life when he took an endowed chairmanship at Cornell University in 1970. He was the first black professor to do so at Cornell.
A great scholar-athlete, who could not attend the Ivy League university of his choice as an undergraduate, found redemption in the fact that his son could attend the school he selected. Paul Robeson was an All-American star football player at Rutgers University where he earned varsity letters in four sports. He pledged Alpha Phi Alpha and graduated valedictorian of his class at Rutgers; however, he originally wanted to attend Princeton University, which is in Robeson’s hometown. When his brother, William Drew Robeson Jr., was denied acceptance, Paul Robeson made the decision to stay in New Jersey but to attend Rutgers. Robeson graduated at the head of his class and then took a law degree at Columbia University while acting on Broadway. Rather than even consider Princeton (which had very few black students enrolled just after World War II), Robeson sent his son, Paul Robeson Jr. to Cornell, where he graduated in 1949.
From the nineteenth to the twentieth century, black students in the Ivy League pushed through difficult circumstances to achieve. When given the opportunity, they excelled in all categories. Not surprisingly there was a high number of black students who received Phi Beta Kappa honors and many of the student athletes achieved national and university recognition for their work on the fields and courts. Many of these students were “firsts.” With the exception of few, black firsts, in nearly every category, have always known they had to carry themselves in a manner that exuded confidence but not arrogance in the face of white competition. Working within the system, black Ivy students during the desegregation period strove to shine scholastically and athletically through diligence and excellence. That would not change in the period after World War II, but black learners, following the lead of black agitators off campus, began to critique the system and move away from the idea of assimilation as a survival mechanism. The small number of black students attending the Ivies before World War II, however, did whatever they could to maintain their dignity while striving for excellence.
2
Unsettling Ol’ Nassau
Princeton University from Jim Crow Admissions to Anti-Apartheid Protests
We knew we were intruders in the white country club.
—Shearwood McClelland, 1998
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the brother of famed black Renaissance man and the town of Princeton’s own Paul Robeson attempted to make an application at Princeton University. The university president at the time, Woodrow Wilson, refused his application even after the town of Princeton’s most popular black minister, William Drew Robeson (Paul Robeson’s father) of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church, appealed to Wilson personally. Historically, black ministers acted as liaisons between black and white communities, which had typically been the case in the town of Princeton. With regard to the Reverend Robeson’s son’s application for admission, however, the tacit relationship between the black clergy and white institutional power meant nothing. Paul Robeson resented Princeton University’s treatment of his brother and father for the rest of his life.
Princeton, as a northern town and an elite university, was as segregated as any place below the Mason-Dixon Line for much of its history. Although black students met with cold receptions when they arrived at the seven other American Ivy League universities, they could at least attend those schools. Unlike those fortunate students who attended the seven other Ivies, African American students could not attend Princeton in earnest until the middle of the twentieth century. For that reason, Princeton University earned the unique reputation of being what one might describe as southern-most Ivy as it took on the culture of the Old South.1 One can understand how engulfing racism was in this nation’s history by studying the experience of black people at Princeton University—a premiere institution of education.
Those associated with Princeton University and other elite Ivy League schools can proudly say that their students, faculty, and administrators go on to literally lead the nation in terms of politics, culture, and economics. For instance, presidents of Princeton University signed the Declaration of Independence and created the Fourteen Points Plan and one need not look any further than recent American presidents and U.S. Supreme Court justices for the contemporary influence of the Ivy League.2 With that in mind, Princeton affiliates boast that their university is “in the nation’s service and in the service of all nations.”3 In essence, Ivy League universities represent at times the best and most powerful aspects of America. The standards that these universities use to select students and the curricula that the Ivy institutions establish trickle down in various forms to institutions of higher education throughout the nation and the world.4 Although Princeton University and its peers are among the oldest and most prestigious American universities, in some ways these institutions had to be led into a new era of freedom for black people and social justice. In the twentieth century, students and progressive-minded school officials, as well as social movements led to Princeton’s acceptance of black students, the establishment of its Black Studies curriculum, and the school’s stand against apartheid South Africa.
Although there is rich scholarly literature surrounding Princeton University in general, surprisingly little has been written about Princeton and its historic relationship with black people. Carl A. Fields, who came to Princeton as an administrator in 1964, published his memoirs of his tenure at Princeton. Recently, Melvin McCray, a black alumnus, produced a documentary titled Looking Back: Reflections of Black Princeton Alumni that covers the topic. Jerome Karabel, in The Chosen (2005), discussed Princeton’s struggle to attract a certain type of student that did not include African Americans and even Jews at one point.5 Marcia Synnott and Geoffrey Kabaservice wrote about admissions and the leadership at Princeton. Then, James Axtell constructed a history of the New Jersey Ivy institution. Comprehensive in many aspects, Axtell’s history neglects the role of black people in shaping Princeton. Several articles in university publications have focused on the arrival of black students to campus, but the evolution from black admissions to the campus activism of black students remains generally absent.
When scholars of the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement discuss the protests and demonstrations that took place in the state of New Jersey, they typically mention the unrest that occurred in Newark during the urban uprisings of 1967.6 Some remember the student protests that occurred at Rutgers University during the period.7 But less attention has been paid to the student demonstrations that took place on the beautifully landscaped campus of Princeton University in the late 1960s. Although there were no snipers atop buildings and no tanks maneuvering through campus, as was the case during the Newark uprising, students on Princeton’s campus took up the cause of the black freedom movement in their own way. This chapter seeks to illuminate the role that