May. 22nd, 2008 03:03 pm
Separate but inequal
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muckefuckIncidentally, the book that attracted the attention of my chatty fellow passenger that day was Ain't but a place : an anthology of African American writings about St. Louis. As I explained to him, my impetus for buying it was the shamefully recent realisation that I knew basically nothing about Black St. Louis. And given the entrenched segregation in the city (far worse than what I've seen in Chicago), that's a fairly big lacuna when it comes to the place I claim as my hometown.
I haven't read much, but I've already uncovered a pretty shocking tidbit: Washington University didn't grant full admittance to African-Americans until 1952--a full two years after the state system had been desegregated by court order--and only then because it was essentially blackmailed by the City government. (If it hadn't, it would've lost tax exemption for its extensive property holdings within the City.) This made me immediately curious when my sister's alma mater, St. Louis University, ended racial segregation. It was only eight years earlier, but at least it was in response to pressure from prominent members of the institution (particularly Prof. Claude Heithaus, who lost his position there for "disobedience" toward his superiors within the Society of Jesus). And apparently even this late date was a milestone for a former slave state.
(By contrast, my alma mater never barred Blacks. In fact, the book points out that one of the academics who was refused admission to both Wash U and SLU when he arrived in the teens went on to earn an advanced degree at U of C. As one African-American writer once said of it, "U of C is odd; they're not racist there, they're elitist. They don't care what color you are as long as you're a genius.")
I haven't read much, but I've already uncovered a pretty shocking tidbit: Washington University didn't grant full admittance to African-Americans until 1952--a full two years after the state system had been desegregated by court order--and only then because it was essentially blackmailed by the City government. (If it hadn't, it would've lost tax exemption for its extensive property holdings within the City.) This made me immediately curious when my sister's alma mater, St. Louis University, ended racial segregation. It was only eight years earlier, but at least it was in response to pressure from prominent members of the institution (particularly Prof. Claude Heithaus, who lost his position there for "disobedience" toward his superiors within the Society of Jesus). And apparently even this late date was a milestone for a former slave state.
(By contrast, my alma mater never barred Blacks. In fact, the book points out that one of the academics who was refused admission to both Wash U and SLU when he arrived in the teens went on to earn an advanced degree at U of C. As one African-American writer once said of it, "U of C is odd; they're not racist there, they're elitist. They don't care what color you are as long as you're a genius.")