The students of the Radical University: Christopher C. McKinney

Christopher Charles McKinney (b. 1856; d. December 11, 1909)
South Carolina.  Born free.  Mulatto.  
Father's occupation: bookkeeper, grocer, music teacher.
Occupation: grocer, school teacher.

Christopher Charles McKinney Jr. was born in South Carolina to Eslander L. and Christopher Charles McKinney Sr., but by 1860, the family had moved to Cleveland, Ohio.  The father worked as a music teacher.  The mother worked as a dressmaker and was also known as a talented vocalist.  The family shared a home with Eslander's sister and mother, both named Lydia Cardozo.

Eslander was the aunt of I. N. Cardozo, another student at the University of South Carolina who was also living in Cleveland at this time.  Her brother was Francis L. Cardozo, an important  political figure in South Carolina during Reconstruction.

The McKinney family returned to South Carolina during Reconstruction.  By 1868, Christopher Sr. was living in Columbia, South Carolina.  There he worked as chief clerk for the State Treasurer, who was his brother-in-law Francis Cardozo.

During this time, Christopher Jr. attended Oberlin University in Ohio.  He followed the Classical Course in the university's (College) Preparatory Department.  He was a student alongside I. N. Cardozo from 1871-73.  It is unclear how long Christopher Jr. was at Oberlin.  University records indicate that he attended the university from 1871-75, but the University of South Carolina lists him as enrolling at that university on October 5, 1874.

At the University of South Carolina, Christopher Jr. was a college student following the classical studies track. While a student, he and I. N. Cardozo lived with Christopher's father at 56 Plain St (now Hampton Street). The University was closed before he completed his degree.

After Reconstruction, the family moved to Washington D.C.  By 1880, Christopher Jr. ran a grocery store with his father.  Later he worked for the federal government.  For example he worked in the Census Office, in the Post Office Department, and in the Office of the Quartermaster General.

In January 1903, while working for the Post Office, Christopher Jr. was the victim of an assault. He was attacked outside his home by another postal employee who was wielding a knife.  The reasons for the attack were not reported, although the two men may have known each other (both were, for example, African Americans from South Carolina).  The assailant was indicted for assault with a dangerous weapon, but the charges were dismissed roughly 1 year after the attack (in September 1904).

Christopher Jr. died in Washington DC on December 11, 1909.

Sources:
1). 1880; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, District of Columbia; Roll: 121; Page: 98A; Enumeration District: 017

2). 1860 U.S. census, population schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.

3). 1870; Census Place: Columbia, Richland, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1507; Page: 134B.

4). Department of Commerce and Labor, Bureau of the Census. Official Register of the United States, Containing a List of the Officers and Employees in the Civil, Military, and Naval Service.  1891.

5). "Plans a Ratification." Evening star, August 19, 1908, p. 16.

6). "Many Promotions."  Evening star, April 10, 1905, p. 8.

7). "Held for Assault."  The Washington times, January 25, 1903, p. 20.

6).  "Deaths Reported." Evening star, December 11, 1909, p. 4.

7). "Dismissal of Indictments."  Evening star, September 13, 1904, p. 16.

8). "Indictments Returned by the Grand Jury."  The Washington times, February 19, 1903, p. 2.

9).  Seventy-Fifth Anniversary General Catalogue of Oberlin College, 1833-1908.  Oberlin, Ohio.  1909.

A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Grünzweig at Lincoln

This continues the blogpost "A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Intro to Simon Grünzweig" and "A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Lincoln in the 1940s"

The Lincoln University campus
1942 Lincoln University Yearbook

Moving to Lincoln University must have been a huge shock to Grünzweig.  Up to this time, Grünzweig had lived in major cities: New York City and European capitals like Vienna and Stockholm.  Lincoln was as different as one can imagine.  It was a largely self-contained environment of the university students, staff, and faculty and the residents of a small neighboring village.  Most faulty, including Grünzweig, lived in university housing.  The nearest town, Oxford, Pennsylvania, was only 4 miles away, but Oxford itself was quite small (less than 3,000 residents), and Lincoln faculty tended to stay on campus.

The isolation at Lincoln was reinforced by the social climate of the region.  While Pennsylvania is a Northern state, Lincoln lies near the Maryland border, and culturally the region had much in common with Upper South states like Maryland.  Pennsylvania did not enact the type of segregationist laws which existed in the Jim Crow South, but schools, movie theaters, swimming pools, and other facilities in the area were segregated by social practice.  Lincoln's tradition of promoting integration and Black uplift generated conflict with Oxford residents.  Professor Fale's wife recalled that, in the 1940s, white students from Oxford would occasionally drive to Lincoln to harass students and faculty by, for example, throwing cherry bombs.  Attempts by Lincoln students to challenge segregated facilities in Oxford were met with threats of violence.

Lincoln University Faculty, Grünzweig is row 2, in the center
The Lion Yearbook, 1950

Grünzweig had a difficult time adjusting to teaching at Lincoln.  He was hired as an assistant professor on a 1 year contract.  His workload was very high: five classes per term.  Moreover, Grünzweig was largely running the math department by himself.  The only others teaching the subject were Professor Cole (who was also responsible for teaching physics) and Nathan T. Seeley (who had left by Fall 1950).

Grünzweig's colleagues were displeased with his classroom performance. In Spring 1950 (after he had been teaching for a year and a half), he was informed that that he might not be employed the next year.  The university tried to hire Wade Ellis, an African American professor working at Oberlin College, to take over the Mathematics Department. They were unsuccessful. Ultimately, Grünzweig was offered employment for the 1950-51 academic year with the understanding that there was no possibility of further employment at Lincoln.

It is difficult to reconstruct from existing records what about Grünzweig's teaching caused displeasure.  It seems that he had difficulties teaching in English and also adjusting to teaching US students, common difficulties for refugee scholars.  A glimpse of the students' view of Grünzweig is given in the 1950 student yearbook.  In the yearbook, each graduating senior had a detailed entry with humorous comments about their time at Lincoln.  The entry for math student Donald Roberts reads, "he wore out three math profs...met his match mit der 'zweig [with Grünzweig]."

Donald C. Roberts's yearbook entry states that he "met his match met der 'zweig"
From The Lion Yearbook, 1950

While at Lincoln, Grünzweig crossed paths with one especially remarkable math student: Abdulalim Shabazz (then going by "Lonnie Cross").  Shabazz was a standout student, receiving a number of academic awards and graduating salutatorian.  Shabazz graduated at the end of Grünzweig's first year at Lincoln and left the area for graduate school.  Dr. Shabazz would later become a math professor at various universities (including Lincoln) and was honored by U.S. President Clinton with a National Mentor award in 2000.

Given the small size of Lincoln, Shabazz must have crossed paths with Grünzweig, although I have been unable to locate any account of their interactions.  There are a few accounts of Shabazz's time at Lincoln, and he credits a math and chemistry professor (probably Edward K. Haviland) with sparking his interest in math.

Abdulalim Shabazz at Lincoln
The Lion Yearbook, 1949 

Grünzweig's departure from Lincoln provoked controversy.  Unidentified members of the university alleged that the decision not to renew Grünzweig's contract was motivated by anti-semitism, but University President Bond denied this in a strongly-worded written statement. The non-renewal decision was made because Grünzweig "was not a distinguished teacher, nor even a very good one."  

During the 30s and 40s, anti-semitism was a concern at Lincoln.  In an interview he gave later in life, Professor Furth said that, during the 30s (before the US was at war with Nazi Germany), some students openly expressed their support for Adolf Hitler in his presence.  Hitler, in their view, was a force for anti-colonialism in African because he was an opponent of France and England.

Anti-semitism does not seem to have played a role in Grünzweig's dismissal: he was replaced by James W. Frankowsky, a Jewish refugee from Poland who ended up teaching at Lincoln for 40 years.

James W. Frankowsky
The Lion Yearbook, 1953

While Grünzweig did not find long-term professional success at Lincoln, his time there marked the beginning of his involvement in U.S. mathematics.  Two year after his departure he produced his first mathematics research.  We will explore what that research was in the next blogpost.

A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Lincoln in the 1940s

This continues the blogpost "A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Intro to Simon Grünzweig."

Upon arriving in New York City in the summer of 1947, Simon Grünzweig faced the prospect of starting a new life in a foreign country.  One major challenge was finding new employment, never an easy task for a 40-year old immigrant with limited language abilities.

Grünzweig was helped in his job search by the International Rescue Committee (IRC).  The organization had formed the American Committee for Emigre Scholars, Writers and Artists which was charged with helping place refugees into jobs.  The subcommittee had surveyed US universities and made inquiries about positions for refugee scholars.

The IRC had success in finding employment for Grünzweig.  By September 1948 (roughly 1 year after he arrived in the US), Grünzweig had accepted an assistant professorship at Lincoln University.  Lincoln is a Historically Black University (or HBCU) in rural Pennsylvania.  At the time, the university offered a 4-year liberal arts education that was fully accredited by the Middle States Association (a notable achievement for an HBCU at the time).  However, in many respects Lincoln was different from 4-year universities most contemporary readers are familiar with.

Lincoln University was founded shortly before the Civil War (in 1854) for the purpose of providing an education to Black men.  While White students had attended the university since the 19th century,  the student body was overwhelming Black when Grünzweig was there, and there were no female students (although some faculty wives attended courses).

Now Lincoln is a public university, but it was originally a private institution closely tied to the Presbyterian Church.  In the 40s and 50s, it remained a private university (although state Governor held an ex-offico position on the Board of Trustees), and Christianity played an important role in campus life.  The university, for example, maintained a seminary and offered regular church services.

Lincoln University was tiny even by the standards of the time.  Student enrollment was below 200 students in 1944.  The end of World War Two saw a large increase in enrollment, and when Grünzweig arrived the student population stood at roughly 500.  This was the highest enrollment until the 1960s.  (Today enrollment stands at about 2,000.)

Physics Professor William Cole
From the 1949 Lincoln University Yearbook

Lincoln also employed a small number of professors.  During the Second World War, the size of the teaching staff was about 30 with a little over 20 of them being professors (the remainder being instructors and lecturers).  Many subjects were taught by only one or two professors.

Staffing math classes presented an especially difficult challenge.  The university only employed one math professor, Walter Livingston Wright, and he was University President.  The math teaching was done by Wright together with Chemistry Professor Edward Haviland, and Physics Professor William Cole.

Beyond the large increase in student enrollment brought about by the end of the war, the 1946-47 academic year saw other important changes.  After serving as University President for almost a decade, Walter Wright retired and was replaced by Horace Mann Bond, Lincoln's first Black President. To manage the growth of the student body, President Bond expanded the size of the teaching staff to roughly 40.

That year the math teaching was done by Professor Cole together with two instructors: Nathan T. Seeley and George H. Butcher, Jr.  Both Seeley and Butcher went on to become math professors.

George H. Butcher, Jr.
From the 1947 Lincoln University Yearbook

Butcher was originally from Washington DC and received an undergraduate degree from Howard University.  He had moved to Pennsylvania to pursue graduate studies at University of Pennsylvania. and had remained in the area after completing his master's degree in 1943.  Later, after teaching at Lincoln, he completed his PhD and returned to DC to teach at Howard.

Nathan T. Seeley
From the 1949 Lincoln University Yearbook

Seeley was from Mamaroneck, New York and had recently graduated from Lincoln.  He would later receive a M.S. degree from University of Pennsylvania and become a math professor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, North Carolina A&T State University, and Morgan State University.

Grünzweig would be the third Jewish refugee to work at Lincoln.  The Austrian economist Herbert Furth arrived at Lincoln in 1939, but he left before Grünzweig (in 1943) to work at the Catholic University of American in Washington DC.  However, the other refugee, German philosophy professor Walter Fales (formerly Feilchenfeld), was a colleague of Grünzweig's.  Professor Fales taught at Lincoln from 1946 to 1953 (when he died of cancer).

The next blogpost will explore what Grünzweig's experience was like when he arrived at Lincoln.

Walter Fales
From Lincoln University Yearbook 1948

A European Jew in the Jim Crow South: Intro to Simon Grünzweig

Ernst Borinski at Tougaloo College

Mathematician readers of this blog are probably familiar with the growth of U.S. universities during and after the Second World War.  A major source of this growth was the war and related crises.  Many European academics, especially Jews, fled Europe and took positions at US universities.  The most famous such academic is probably Albert Einstein.  Another well-known academic who left Europe for the US is French mathematician André Weil.  Weil has a beautifully written account of his experience in his autobiography The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician.

If you've read Weil autobiography, you may remember that his experience did not go well.  He worked at Lehigh University, and of that experience, he wrote, "The only thing expected of me and my colleagues – who were totally ignorant as far as mathematics went – was to serve up predigested formulas from stupid textbooks and to keep the cogs of this diploma factory turning smoothly."  Lehigh University is not even named in the autobiography because Weil resolved to never again mention the school's name after leaving.

Weil was placed at Leigh with help from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), a humanitarian organization.  The IRC formed a special committee, the American Committee for Emigre Scholars, Writers and Artists, that worked with universities and European refugees to make job placements.

Weil and Einstein were both internationally-renowned academics, but the IRC  also aided many other less well-known academics.  Especially interesting are the Jewish academics who were placed in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).  They are featured in the book From Swastika to Jim Crow by Gabrielle Simon Edgcomb.  The book was later made into a documentary film (with the same name) by Pacific Street Films.

The film makers of From Swastika to Jim Crow were motivated by a desire to address rising tensions between African Americans and Jews in New York City.  A good way of doing this, they thought, was to publicize cooperative relations between the two communities at HBCUs during 1940s and 1950s.  The film focuses on Jewish professors like, for example, Ernst Borinski who worked at HBCUs in the Deep South, especially those worked at HBCUs for long period and were active in the civil rights movement.

In this blogpost, I want to discuss the experience of mathematician Simon Grünzweig (later Green).  His experience differs from the experiences of people like Borinski in that he worked at an HBCU outside the South and had a less positive experience.

Simon Grünzweig in 1954

From Philander Smith College Yearbook

Simon Grünzweig was born Vienna, Austria in 1907.  In Vienna, he graduated from gymnasium in 1928 (at age 21) and then studied mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna.  He passed the state exam (Staatsprüfung) in actuarial science in 1931 and the state exam for teachers (Lehramtsprüfung) in 1932.  He then taught at a college preparatory high school (a gymnasium) and worked as an assistant for Hans Thirring, a theoretical physicist at the Institute for Mathematical Physics at the University of Vienna.

Grünzweig left Austria in 1938.  This was a difficult time for Austrian Jews as this was the year of the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria into Germany.  The Anschluss marked the beginning of a massive increase in state oppression and harassment of Jews.  Even people who just supported Jews faced difficulties.  While not Jewish, Hans Thirring had published a book on Einstein's theory of relativity and was an avowed pacifist.  All this was enough that the government forced him into retirement although he was only 50 years old.

Grünzweig was one of over 100,000 Austrian Jews (out of an estimated total population of 181,882) who fled the county.  Grünzweig first left for Finland, making him one of roughly 500 Jews to flee to that country.  He stayed in Finland until 1944.  I have been unable to find information about Grünzweig's activities in Finland, but he was there during a volatile time.  The year after Grünzweig moved there (in 1939), the Soviet Union invaded Finland.  The two countries reached a peace agreement in 1940, but war broke out again a year later, and this time Finland allied itself with Nazi Germany.  Despite the alliance, Finland was a place of relative safety for Jews.  Eight Jewish refugees were deported to Germany in 1942, but their deportation was met with nationwide protests which brought deportations to an end.  In 1944, military victories by the Soviet Union forced Finland to accept a peace agreement.  That year Grünzweig left the county for Sweden.

Sweden remained neutral during the Second World War and accepted thousands of Jewish refugees, especially refugees living in Denmark, Norway and Finland.  In Sweden, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (a New York based Jewish relief organization) helped Grünzweig find suitable employment.  He worked as a mathematician at the Meteorological Department at Uppsala University, as a researcher at the Royal Telegraph Office in Stockholm, at the L. M. Ericsson Telephone company, and at an insurance firm.  He remained in Sweden until the summer of 1947 when he immigrated to the United States.

Grünzweig arrived in the US aboard the S.S. Veendam
From Ancestory.com

Grünzweig arrived in New York City by ship in July 1947.  His arrival marked his successful escape from European anti-Semitism, but he faced considerable obstacles to setting up a new life for himself.  He was 40 years old, stateless (his citizenship had been stripped by the National Socialist government), and spoke limited English.  However, he was able to find an apartment on the Upper West Side and spent time at Brooklyn College, familiarizing himself with teaching in the US.  The following blogpost will explore what happened next.

The Professors of the Radical University: Rudolph Vampill

Rudolph Vampill
From The Lumberton Argus July 28, 1905

Rudolph Ertel Vampill (b. April 17, 1823; d. September 19, 1907)
Breslau, Germany.  White.
Education: M.D. (University of Maryland)
Occupation: physician.

Rudolph Vampill was born in Breslau (now the Polish city of Wrocław) to unknown parents. At the time, Breslau was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, but Vampill consistently described himself as Polish in records.

Several accounts say that Vampill lived in Leipzig and received medical training in Berlin and Vienna. In America, Vampill described himself as a professor of music and a member of the Vienna Royal Academy of Arts. Vampill also lived in Cuba according to one obituary, although it is unclear whether that was before or after he immigrated to America.

As a young man, Vampill fought for the Kingdom of Hungary in the 1848 Hungarian Revolution against the Austrian Empire. He served under the Polish General Józef Bem and was a captain in the Hungarian Dragoons. He participated in several battles and was wounded. The revolution was defeated in 1849.

Accounts of when Vampill immigrated to the United States are contradictory. It would have been natural for him to have left Europe after Bem's army was defeated, but he appears to have arrived in America several years later. He first appears in the historical record in May 1854. That month a newspaper in Fayetteville, North Carolina ran an advertisement for Vampill's services as a music teacher. Several later accounts, including an obituary, state that Vampill only arrived in America at a later time, in 1857. Vampill himself wrote on an 1892 naturalization document that he arrived in the United States in April 1859.  

The obituary for Vampill states that he first arrived in New York but then moved to Chicago. After living there a "short while," the obituary states that he moved to North Carolina, first teaching taught music in Raleigh, then in Goldsboro, and finally in Fayetteville. Except for the 1857 date of his arrival in America, this account is consistent with existing records. For example, the Fayetteville newspaper published advertisements for Vampill's services in 1854.

After he'd been teaching music in North Carolina for a few years, Vampill received medical training. In 1857, he received an M.D. from the College of Medicine of Maryland (which is now part of University of Maryland).  As part of his studies, he submitted a dissertation on the disease croup. By 1858, he had moved to Hillsborough, North Carolina, but he moved to South Carolina 2 years later (in 1860).  In South Carolina, he lived in Little Rock and Mullin's Depot (which became Mullins in 1872) in Marion County. 

In Mullin's Depot, Vampill worked as a physician and developed a large plot of land which he purchased.  He built a park with a fish pond and swings and maintained a grape vineyard and a wine press.  By 1869, he was exporting grapes to New York.  He was fondly regarded by many town residents.  One resident, writing roughly 30 years after Vampill had left the town, recalled Vampill's residence and said that, "In his ideas of a town and its progress Dr. Vampill was 100 years ahead of Mullins of his day."

Vampill's activities during the Civil War are poorly documented. He appears to have remained in Marion county, working as a physician and tending to his vineyard. An October 1863 newspaper advertisement announces that he was selling a 100 acre planation near Marion. 

After the war, Vampill seems to have been supportive of the Republican government as he held multiple government positions: during the late 1860s and early 1870s, he was Treasurer for Marion County, Postmaster for Mullin's Deport, Intendant of Mullins, and Marion County Commissioner for the 1872 State Election. The last position was an appointment made by Republican Governor Robert K. Scott, and one newspaper reported that all such appointments were to Radicals.

One history of the University of South Carolina states that Vampill was removed as County Treasurer for "malfeasance." However, existing records are unclear on what precisely transpired.  In early 1872, the state General Assembly passed a joint resolution relieving Vampill of responsibility for uncollected taxes for 1868 (taxes amounting to roughly $8,000).  However, the resolution does not state that Vampill was relieved due to malfeasance but rather because his records had been destroyed in a fire.  Vampill was removed as Treasurer by Governor Franklin J. Moses in November 1873, but no reason for the removal was given. A 1911 account in a newspaper that was generally hostile towards the Reconstruction government speaks highly of Vampill as a public official and makes no mention of any malfeasance.

Vampill was made Professor of Modern Languages at the University of South Carolina around November 1873.  He took over the professorship from John C. Faber.  Faber had been dismissed in early October, a few days before the first African American student enrolled at the university.  No reason was given for his dismissal, but all professors who had been at the university in the 1860s were gone by this time.  University records are incomplete, but it seems that the professors were removed by the Board of Trustees (which was largely composed of Radical Republican politicians) because of conflict over university reforms, especially the enrollment of African American students.

Vampill only stayed at the university for about a year.  Of Vampill, his former student C. C. Scott only wrote that he was "a native German, and spoke English imperfectly."

Vampill resigned from the university on January 30, 1875.  In his letter of resignation, Vampill speaks highly of the university and states that he is leaving to tend to business affairs. 

After leaving the university, Vampill returned to Mullins and worked on some inventions.  In the summer of 1876, he received government patents for a wheel hoe and a compound-engine jack (the latter was jointly awarded to him and another resident of Mullins, William C. Taylor).  A new feature of the wheel hoe was that it could be adjusted to change the depth at which the hoe worked.

The engine jack was designed to replace locomotive engines that had run off track.  A difficulty was that replacing a locomotive engine requires moving the engine both vertically and laterally, and the lateral movement presents a mechanical challenge.  The invention improved over previous designs by more easily enabling the lateral movement.

Sketch of compound engine-jack
From Scientific American

Sketch of wheel hoe
From U.S. patent

Around the time he received the patents, Vampill left the South.  He and his family moved to Philadelphia so that his wife Anne Jane could attend the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia (now part of Drexel University College of Medicine).  The family moved around the midwest for the remainder of the 1870s.  Vampill registered as a physician in Springfield, Illinois in January 1876, but by 1878, he was living in LePort, Indiana.  Before the year's end, he had moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he stayed until around 1879.

By 1880, Vampill had returned to Marion County, South Carolina. He continued to work as a physician and maintained a farm. He reported on the census that he owned 50 acres of tilled land and 800 acres of woodland. On this land, he grew Indian corn, Irish potatoes, and cotton. This mix of subsistence and cash-crop farming was typical for an upstate farm. 

By 1881, Vampill and his family had left South Carolina to return to North Carolina. The family lived for a brief time in Charlotte, NC, but soon settled in Lumberton, North Carolina, then a small town of about 600 people. Vampill had a love for music, and in Lumberton, he became a patron of the arts and built an opera house.  The opera house was active for about 50 years.  The building was then used as a hotel until it was demolished in the 1960s.

Vampill had been working as a physician since leaving the University of South Carolina, but he tried making a living through music around 1889. At that time, he moved to Gainesville, Florida to work as the music instructor at East Florida Seminary, a public school that was later merged into the University of Florida.

By 1892, Vampill had left his position at the seminary and had moved to Savannah, GA, where he resumed working as a physician. Vampill had returned to Lumberton by 1897 and mostly stayed there for the remainder of his life, although he returned to Savannah in 1900.

By the time he had returned to Lumberton, Vampill had retired from working as a physician.He had evidently accumulated a significant amount of wealth and remained active in town affairs. In addition to helping run the opera house he built, he purchased a hotel and renovated it. 

Vampill's wife died of natural causes in 1904. Vampill remained in the town and became somewhat of an eccentric, albeit a highly esteemed one. Even though his daughter and her family lived in town, he began living alone in his Opera House, spending his time reading and playing music. 

On the morning of September 17, 1907, after he'd been living in the Opera House for several years, was discovered unconscious in his bed. He had suffered a stroke of apoplexy, and he died the next day without remaining consciousness. He is buried in town, at Meadowbrook Cemetery.

Despite his involvement with South Carolina's Reconstruction government, at the time of his death, Vampill was well-regarded by many residents of both Lumberton and Mullin's. One account of Vampill's life that appeared in a Mullin's newspaper a few years after he died described him as

a man of many distinguishing characteristics, a fine musician, a kind neighbor and an intendant, the like of whom Mullins has never had [again].  He was progressive, scientific in his manner of thought and education, but of the advanced thought of the German people in matters of God and his attributes.

Many of Vampill's descendants remained in North Carolina, and a few of them achieved prominence. Vampill's grandson Frank Ertel Carlyle was a North Carolina congressman who was a signatory to the 1956 Southern Manifesto (opposing the desegregation of public schools).  His granddaughter was Janie Carlyle Hargrove, a noted missionary, educator, and philanthropist.

Publications

1) An Inaugural Dissertation on Croup. 1857. University of Maryland. M.D. dissertation.

Sources

1). Cordell, Eugene Fauntleroy, Historical Sketch of the University of Maryland, School of Medicine (1807-1890).  Press of Isaac Friedenwald, Baltimore (1891).

2). "First Intendent of Mullins." The Dillon herald, January 12, 1911, p. 1.

3) "Music! Music!! Music!!!" Fayetteville Weekly Observer [North Carolina]. May 1, 1854.

3). "Dr. R. Vampill."  The Southerner, July 5, 1856, p. 2.

4). "List of Letters."  The Hillsborough Recorder, July 14, 1858, p. 3.

5). "Post Offices in South Carolina."  The Daily Phoenix, June 22, 1866, p. 2.

6). "Grape Sales in New York."  American Citizen, February 27, 1869, p. 4.

7). "A New Enterprise."  The Charleston daily news, May 10, 1869, p. 4.

8). "Legislative Proceedings."  The Daily Phoenix, February 24, 1872, p. 2.

9). "South Carolina Wines."  The Abbeville press and banner, February 28, 1872, p. 2.

10). "Laws of the State."  The Charleston daily news, March 14, 1872, p. 1.

11). "The Fall Elections."  The Charleston daily news, August 20, 1872, p. 1.

12). The Daily Phoenix, November 5, 1873, p. 2.

13). "Editorial Correspondence."  Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican, November 6, 1873, p. 2.

14). "City Matters."  The Daily Phoenix, December 15, 1874, p. 2.

15). "Partners Wanted."  Chicago daily tribune, February 6, 1878, p. 3.

16). The Cincinnati daily star, December 30, 1878, Third Edition, p. 3.

17). "Medical Notice."  The Charlotte Democrat, July 8, 1881, p. 1.

18). "Consumption."  The farmer and mechanic, August 30, 1882, p. 4.

19) "Death of Mrs. A. J. Vampill." The Robesonian [Lumberton, NC]. December 3, 1903. p. 3. 

20) "Purchase the Blake Hotel." The Robesonian [Lumberton, NC]. January 29, 1904. p. 5.

19) "Dr. Rudolph Vampill." The Lumberton Argus [Lumberton, North Carolina]. July 28, 1905. p. 33.

20) "Dr. Vampill Stricken: Leading Citizen of Lumberton Had a Stroke of Apoplexy." Wilmington Morning Star [Wilmington, NC]. September 18, 1907. p  4. 

21) "Dr. Vampill Dead." Wilmington Morning Star [Wilmington, NC]. September 19, 1907. p  1. 

19). "Lumberton Old Opera House."  The Robesonian, July 23, 2015.

20). Cincinnati, Ohio, City Directory, 1879

21). Resarch Library & Municipal Archives City of Savannah, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia; Series Title: City Court, Naturalization Records, 1825-1904; Record Series Number: 5600CC-035; Box Number: 10

22). Savannah, Georgia, City Directory, 1891, 1892

23). "South Carolina News."  The Charlotte Democrat, April 10, 1876, p. 2.

24). "Hargrave, Janie Carlyle" in  Powell, William S., Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
H-K, Volume 3.  University of North Carolina Press (1988).

25). "A New Compound Engine Jack."  Scientific American, August 5, 1876. p. 83.

26). Vampill, Rudolph. "Improvement in Wheel-Hoes."  Patent No. 181,380. United States Patent Office. July 22, 1876.

27) 1860; Census Place: Marion, Marion, South Carolina; Page: 113

27) 1870; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1503; Page: 254A

28) 1880; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Roll: 1235; Page: 305A; Enumeration District: 100

29) 1880; Census Place: Reeves, Marion, South Carolina; Archive Collection Number: AD273; Roll: 12; Page: 12; Line: 8; Schedule Type: Agriculture

#MAA Disrupted, David L. Hunter

David L. Hunter
From the Carver College yearbook

David L. Hunter with math class in 1964
From the Carver College Yearbook

The Carver College Math Club
From the Carver College yearbook

David L. Hunter giving a 2013 speech
Screenshot of recording "CPCC 50th Time Capsule Burial"

In the blogpost #DisruptJMM, 1960 Edition, I wrote about a 1960 MAA meeting held in South Carolina where African Americans left in protest because the organizers had hosted the meeting at a segregated hotel.  At the time, African American mathematicians had few ways to obtain redress for these types of grievances.  While there were a large number of African American mathematicians working the Southeast (especially at Historically Black College and Universities), none of the them were MAA officials.  This situation first changed in 1972 when David L. Hunter was elected Vice-Chairman.

Hunter's election as an MAA officer provides a striking demonstration of how advances in the treatment of African Americans were achieved through collective action.  Hunter had been a graduate student at Atlanta University in the early 1960s and had studied under Abdulalim Shabazz, the math professor who had led the 1960 protest.  While it took over a decade, Dr. Shabazz's work ultimately  helped place an African American into a significant administrative position within the MAA, removing a major barrier to African American participation in mathematics.

Hunter's professional trajectory provides a view of what life was like for mid-20th century African American mathematicians.  You can listen to Hunter talk his life in a 1996 interview, a 2005 interview, and at a 2013 speech.

Hunter was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1933.  He was raised by his mother, grandmother, and aunt.  His mother worked as a domestic worker, his aunt as a cook, and his grandmother as a laundress.

After graduating from high school, Hunter went to Johnson C. Smith University.  His studies were interrupted by army service, so he only graduated in 1957.  Right after graduation, he was hired as a math instructor at Carver College.  (Carver was a black junior college in Charlotte that was later incorporated into Central Piedmont Community College.)

When he was hired by Carver, Hunter agreed that he would get a master's degree.  After his first year of teaching (in summer of 1958), he started taking graduate courses at Atlanta University.  He enjoyed his studies and found the Department Chair Abdulalim Shabazz to be especially inspirational.  ("Smartest man I've ever seen in my life" is how he later described Dr. Shabazz.)

Dr. Shabazz encouraged Hunter to return next summer, but attending Atlanta University was a major financial burden.  The cost of summer tuition together with room and board was roughly 1 month of Hunter's salary.  However, because he had done well during his first summer, Dr. Shabazz arranged for him to be hired as a teaching instructor at Morehouse College.  With the income from teaching Hunter was able to  return for another summer and then enrolled for the 1960-1961 academic year.

While a student in Atlanta, Hunter became involved in the Civil Rights Movement.  At the time, many of the restaurants in downtown Atlanta were segregated, and in 1960, a number of Atlanta University students protested against this by participating in sit-ins.  Hunter and other math graduate students went to an upscale whites-only cafeteria and tried to join the serving line.  As waited in line, the cafeteria's clientele started to change: well-dressed businessmen and military officers were replaced by rough-looking workers.  Hunter said the new clientele was "getting ready to do something bad," but before violence broke out, the police arrived and announced that the cafeteria was closed and made everyone leave.

At the end of Spring 1961, Hunter had done well in his coursework, but he failed his foreign language exam.  Frustrated, he decided to return to Charlotte without his degree.

Carver College was in a state of transition when Hunter returned.  The college was moving to a new location and had been renamed Mecklenburg College.  Hunter said that white city officials had decided on the name change because they didn't want the college to be named after an African American. (Carver College was named after George Washington Carver.)

The renaming of Carver College was part of a general backlash to integration efforts in Charlotte.  While the famous 1954 Brown v. Board of Ed Supreme Court decision had ordered states to desegregate their public school systems, Charlotte only began desegregating its school system in the early 1960s after facing lawsuits.  Efforts at desegregation made people "mean as hell," in Hunter's words.

Ironically, desegregation had a negative impact on many African American teachers.  As progress was made towards desegregation, it became clear that many blacks-only schools like Carver would be shutdown and only a few African American teachers would keep their jobs.  Anticipating that he would soon lose his job, Hunter began to apply for jobs as a high school teacher.  However, he was told that he would be hired at Central Piedmont Community College (or CPCC) if he completed his master's degree.

Hunter returned to Atlanta University in the summer of 1964 to complete his degree.  He continued to take math classes and passed his foreign language exam.  He submitted his thesis "Lecture in the theory of functions of a complex variable, Part II" and was awarded a master's degree at the end of the 1964-65 academic year.

Hunter completed his degree just in time because Mecklenburg College had closed by the time he returned to Charlotte.  Out of the 15 people working at Mecklenburg, Hunter was 1 of only 4 to be hired at CPCC.

When he arrived at CPCC, Hunter was surprised at the resources that were available.  While he was first settling in to the new job, he asked one of the secretaries for two or three pens and some paper.  He was expecting the secretary to immediately provide him with the items, and when she told him to come back later to pick them up, he felt insulted.  Upon returning, he realized that there had been a misunderstanding: rather than receiving two or three pens, he received two or three boxes full of pens.  Hunter was amazed because providing an instructor with boxes of pens was far beyond the financial resources of Carver College.

Hunter was anxious about starting to teach at CPCC as he was the only African American instructor and the student body was predominately white.  To help everyone make the adjustment, a friendly chemistry instructor accompanied Hunter to his first class.  The instructor (falsely) told the students that he and Hunter were co-teaching the class and asked Hunter to call roll. After Hunter did so, the instructor turned the classroom over to him.  The class then proceeded normally.  After that, Hunter did not make any special efforts in the classroom, and he said he soon felt accepted by the students and faculty.

In the early 1970s, Hunter became active in the Mathematical Association of American.  In 1972, he was elected Vice Chairman of Southeastern Section, and he served in the role  from 1972-75.  Hunter's vice-chairmanship saw increase in African American participation at regional MAA meetings with students from the HBCU Bennett College regularly presenting.  Presenters included Nedra Hamer, Cynthia Hardy, Denise L. Johnson, Nanetta B. Lowe, Gloria J. Phillips, Bessie Tarpley, Reba M. Turner, and Ruby D. Williams.  These appears to have been the first African Americans have presented at meetings of the Southeastern section.  (However, Kenneth W. Wegner, a white professor working at Spelman and Morehouse Colleges, presented at the 1969 meeting.)

Over the course of the 1970s, Hunter became increasingly involved involved in administrative work and decreasingly involved in mathematics.  He earned a Doctorate of Education from Nova Southeastern University in 1979.  In 1995, he retired from CPCC as the Dean of Arts and Sciences and Vice President of General Studies at CPCC.  He is an honored citizen of Charlotte.  For example, he was awarded the National Council on Black American Affairs's Distinguished Service Award.

Bennett College student Reba Turner
Bennett College Yearbook (1976)

Bennett College student Gloria Phillips
Bennett College Yearbook (1977)

Bennett College student Bessie Tarpley (1973)
Bennett College Yearbook

The students of the Radical University: William A. Sinclair

William A. Sinclair
From An era of progress and promise

William Albert Sinclair (b. March 25, 1858, d. April 20, 1926)
South Carolina.  Born enslaved.  Mulatto.
Occupation: financial secretary, physician, teacher.

William A. Sinclair was born in Georgetown, South Carolina to enslaved parents whose names are unknown. When Sinclair was four years old (in 1862), he and his mother were sold and separated from the rest of their family.  The family was reunited after the Civil War, but his father died shortly thereafter.

For his education, Sinclair first attended local schools in Georgetown and then registered at the University of South Carolina on October 5, 1874. He entered into the subfreshman (or college preparatory) class but was a college student on the modern studies track by January 1876.  The university closed before he completed his degree.

After the university closed, Sinclair left South Carolina and never again lived in the Deep South.  He later spoke about life in South Carolina for African Americans when providing testimony at an extradition hearing.  The South Carolina state government had requested that Pennsylvania extradite an African American accused of committing murder.  Sinclair told officials that, if extradited, the accused would not be treated fairly by the South Carolina legal system.  In his words:

it would be utterly impossible for this man [the accused] to have a fair trial in South Carolina.  There is not a colored man in the county of Edgefield that would dare come to that court house if that man was being tried to say one single word in his favor, not a single one.  If he dared to do it, he wouldn't stay in the town over night.  If he did he would be dead in the morning.

Sinclair left South Carolina to move to Washington DC.  There he attended Howard University.  In 1880, he graduated from Howard's Theology Department, and the next year (in 1881), he graduated from Howard's College Department.  At the 1881 commencement ceremony, Sinclair delivered an oration titled "The Philosophy of History."

After completing his degree at Howard, Sinclair moved to Nashville, Tennessee and worked for the American Missionary Association.  He also attended Meherry Medical College from 1886-87, graduating with a M.D.

After receiving his M.D., Sinclair spent a year (from 1887 to 1888) as Professor of Natural Science at Livingstone College. He then returned to D.C. and worked as a financial agent for Howard University.  He held this position for 16 years, until 1904.

While working for Howard University, he also attended Andover Theological Seminary (in Newton, Massachusetts) from 1894-95.  There he won a prize for his dissertation and gave an address at commencement.

In 1904, at the end of his time at Howard, Sinclair published his book The Aftermath of Slavery.  The book discusses the condition of African Americans in the U.S. South after the Civil War.

After Sinclair left Howard, he moved to Philadelphia and worked at the Frederick Douglas Memorial Hospital as financial secretary.  While living Philadelphia, he remained involved with Howard University and often returned to Washington DC.  For example, he was a member of the Howard Board of Trustees and, in that capacity, he returned to Howard to participate in e.g. alumni events.

In Philadelphia, Sinclair was active in politics.  He was president of the New England Equal Rights League, a director of the NAACP, and was involved with many other organizations promoting rights for African Americans.

In 1906, he was the local league president of the Constitutional League (an organization for African Americans).  In November of that year, he was part of a delegation of league representatives that met with President Roosevelt to protest the treatment of African American soldiers in the 25th Infantry Regiment.  While the regiment was stationed at Fort Brown in Brownsville, Texas, a white bartender in the town was killed and a white police officer wounded.  Local law enforcement alleged that these acts were committed by African American soldiers.  The African Americans in the regiment were pressured to provide testimony to law enforcement, but they declined.  In response, President Roosevelt, at the recommendation of the Army Inspector General, ordered over 100 troops dishonorably discharged.

The Constitutional League criticized Roosevelt's decision and argued that he should instead offer the soldiers a "square deal."  Despite the intervention of the League, and other organizations, as well as years of legal proceedings, the discharges were upheld until 1972 when President Nixon issued pardons and awarded honorable discharges.  By that time, only two of the soldiers were still living.

During the 1910s, Sinclair publicly criticized  Democratic President Woodrow Wilson for his treatment of African Americans.  In December, 1913, Sinclair was part of a committee of prominent African Americans that met with Wilson to object to the segregation of federal departments (like the Treasury Department).  The committee complained that segregation by the federal government would  "humiliate and degrade our race and present it to the world as an object of scorn and contempt."  Wilson listened to their complaints and said he would look into them, but also asserted that the complaints were exaggerated.  Segregation under Wilson's administration would continue to be a concern for African Americans.

In October, 1916, Sinclair participated in a meeting of the National Equal Rights League in which the league called on Congress to make lynching a federal crime, criticized President Wilson for "fostering race prejudices," and urging people to support Wilson's Republican opponent Charles Evans Hughes in the presidential election.  At the meeting, Sinclair read a paper on "declaration of principles."

The next year, in March, 1917, Sinclair gave a speech to the Woman's Wage Earners' Association titled "What Women Have Accomplished in Social Uplift Work."  Sinclair's former professor Richard T. Greener also gave a speech at the meeting.

Sinclair died of double pneumonia in Philadelphia on April 20, 1926.  A large group from Howard University headed by Howard's Dean George W. Cook attended the funeral.  One obituary for Sinclair described him as "a man of decided ability and varied and liberal attainments, with great firmness and decision, and by his genial temperament and charming personality was a most acceptable and popular visitor everywhere.  Personally, he was the true gentleman – hopeful, pleasant, generous, and kind."  He is buried in Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.

Sources:

1). General Catalogue of the Theological Seminary Andover, Massachusetts: 1808-1908.  Thomas Todd Printer, Boston, MA.  p. 448.

2). Sinclair, William A.  The Aftermath of Slavery: A Study of the Condition and Environment of the American Negro.  Small, Maynard & Company, Boston, MA.  1905.

3). Meharry Medical College, “1887 Meharry Medical College Catalogue,” Meharry Medical College Archives.

4). Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania (State). Death certificates, 1906–1967; Certificate Number Range: 040001-043000

5). 1880; Census Place: Georgetown, Georgetown, South Carolina; Roll: 1229; Page: 315A; Enumeration District: 050

6). "Howard University: Commencement of the Collegiate Department," The National Republican. June 3, 1881.  p. 4.

7). "Philadelphia's Interest." Evening star, November 26, 1906. p. 1.

8). "Wilson Gets Protests on Race Segregation." Evening star, November 6, 1913.  p. 13.

9). "Voices Protest of Race on Lynching."  The Washington Times, October 7, 1916.  p. 9.

10). "Addresses Women." The Washington Times, March 5, 1917. p. 6.

11). "Negro Still Held in Pennsylvania." The Herald and News, July 6, 1915, p. 1.

12). "W. A. Sinclair Dead." Evening Star, April 21, 1926, p. 7.

13). The Richmond Planet, May 1, 1926. p. 5.

The students of the Radical University: J. J. Durham

Photo of J. J. Durham
From History of the American Negro: South Carolina Edition 

Jacob Javan Durham (b. April 13, 1847; d. December 11, 1920)
South Carolina.  Born enslaved. Mulatto.
Occupation: minister, physician.
Father's occupation: farmer.

J. J. Durham was born into slavery in Spartanburg County, South Carolina, near Woodruffs. His mother Dorcas Durham was enslaved by his father James W. Durham.  His father owned a 300 acre plantation which housed 29 enslaved people in 1860.  The planation was valued at $2,400 (roughly the equivalent of $75,000 in 2020) in the 1850 U. S. Census.

When Durham was about 10 years old (around 1857), the family moved to Cashville.  He worked there worked as a farm laborer until he was about 15.  He then worked as a blacksmith for roughly the next 8 years (until 1870).

Durham found his calling in religion around the age of age 19 (in 1867).   He converted and joined the Pilgrim Baptist Church in Greenville County.  Later that year he was licensed and entered into the ministry.  A year later he was called to pastorate at Foster Chapel Baptist Church in Spartanburg and was ordained.

While in Spartanburg, he began to realize that his ability to preach the gospel was limited by his lack of formal education, so he resigned from the church and focused on his studies.  He attended school in Greenville County and hired a private tutor to help him learn Latin and algebra.

Durham registered at the University of South Carolina on October 5, 1874.  He entered in the college preparatory (or sub freshman) class, but he advanced to the college class and is listed as a freshman following the modern studies track in the 1876 university catalogue.  The university closed before he completed his degree.

Durham continued his studies at Atlanta University in Georgia.  At AU, he was joined by a number of other former U of SC students: John L. Dart, Fletcher H. Henderson, Julius J. Holland, Samuel H. McCoy, R. L. Smith, Edward Johnson Stewart, T. F. P. Roberts, and Kenneth M. Young.

Durham entered AU in 1877 as a junior following the college course.  He stayed at the university for 2 years (until the end of the 1878-9 academic year), but he did not complete a degree.  During this period, one account says that Durham worked as a teacher in Cobb County, Georgia for 2 terms.

After leaving Atlanta, Durham moved to Tennessee and enrolled at Fisk University.  He received an A.B. degree from Fisk in summer 1880.

After completing his degree, Durham returned to Columbia, South Carolina and ran the Nazareth Baptist Church.  While ministering in Columbia, he became concerned about the quality of the medical care available to African Americans.  As a way of addressing this concern, he went back to Tennessee to enroll at Meharry Medical College.

Durham attended Meharry from 1880 to 1882.  He was joined by fellow former U of SC students James E. Asbury and Nathaniel Middleton.  Durham graduated with an M.D. and then returned to Columbia.

While in Columbia, Durham was called to the pastorate of the Bethesda Baptist Church, a large African American church in Society Hill, South Carolina.  He also began running a medical practice.

In the 1880s, Durham began to play in increasingly large role in the Baptist church.  In 1883, he resigned from his church duties in Society Hill to become the state Sunday-school missionary under the American Baptist Publication Society and to accept an appointment as secretary and financial agent of the state Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of South Carolina. (The convention is formed by the African American Baptist churches in the state.)

Durham held the appointment in the Baptist convention until 1891 when he moved to Savannah, Georgia to serve as pastor at the Second African Baptist Church.  In Spring 1901, he was selected to deliver a welcome address to U.S. President McKinley. The address was well-received: McKinley said, "That was one of the most beautiful and eloquent addresses I have ever heard."

Durham left his position at Second African Baptist Church in 1902.  He returned to South Carolina and became Education Secretary of the state Baptist Convention.  As Education Secretary, he strongly advocated for the creation of a Baptist-affiliated college owned and operated by African Americans. At the time, the convention supported Benedict College, an HBCU in Columbia, but Benedict was founded by white missionaries and whites played a considerable role in the operation of the college.  Over the course of the early 1900s, African Americans in South Carolina became increasingly frustrated with their lack of influence over the college.

In May 1906, the state Baptist Convention passed a resolution withdrawing its support for Benedict College.  In addition to withdrawing support, the Convention also created a committee, chaired by Durham, that was charged with opening a new college   In a speech to the Convention, Durham called on Convention members to nurture the new college:

The conception has taken place. The idea has developed. The time
of delivery is at hand. The woman is in travail. The birth pains are
already severe. The doctor has been sent for. The midwife has done all
that she could do. The baby must be born, nourished, and nurtured.
The time is now.

Two months later (in July) Durham recommended, on behalf of the committee, that the Convention establish a college in Sumter.  The recommendation was accepted, leading to the founding of Morris College.  The college elected its first president in 1908 and graduated its first class in 1911.

In 1909, Durham moved to Aiken, South Carolina to accept as pastor at Friendship Baptist Church.  He remained there until 1916.  He was also elected President of the state Baptist Convention in 1909, a position he held until 1915.

By 1918, Durham had returned to Columbia and was pastor at Second Calvary Baptist Church.  During this time, he was active in politics.  In May 1918, he joined black community leaders in a protest against the screening of the film "Birth of a Nation."  The next year (in 1919) he delivered a speech in front of the 371 Infantry Regiment, a regiment of African American soldiers, in which argued that their contributions to World War I had entitled African Americans to play a greater role in U.S. society.

Durham died of heart disease (mitral insufficiency) in Columbia in December 11, 1920.  He is buried in Randolph Cemetery.

J. J. Durham
From Our Baptist Ministers and Schools

Grave of J. J. Durham
Photo courtesy of author

Sources

1). Pegues, A. W. Our Baptist Ministers and Schools.  Willey & Co. Springfield, Mass.  1892.

2). Richardson, Clement.  The National Cyclopedia of the Colored Race: Volume One.  National Publishing Company, Montgomery, Alabama.  1919.

3). Simmons, William J.  Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising.  Geo. M. Rewell & Co. Cleveland, Ohio.  1887.

4). Caldwell, A. B.  History of the American Negro: South Carolina Edition.  A. B. Caldwell Publishing Co., Atlanta, Ga.  1919.

5). Hemmingway, Theodore. "Prelude to Change: Black Carolinians in the War Years, 1914-1920." The Journal of Negro History 65, no. 3 (1980): 212-27.

6). 1860 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1860. M653, 1,438 rolls.

7). Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Spartanburg, South Carolina; Archive Collection Number: AD260; Roll: 2; Page: 521; Line: 22; Schedule Type: Agriculture

8). 1870; Census Place: Reidville, Spartanburg, South Carolina; Roll: M593_1508; Page: 555A; Family History Library Film: 553007

9). 1900; Census Place: Savannah, Chatham, Georgia; Page: 14; Enumeration District: 0066; FHL microfilm: 1240186

10). 1920; Census Place: Columbia Ward 4, Richland, South Carolina; Roll: T625_1707; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 89

11). Vereen-Gordon, Mary; Clayton, Janet S.  Morris College: a Noble Journey. Hallmark Publishing, Virginia Beach, VA.  1999.

Notes: Double check if Peter Oliver was a student.

#DisruptAMS, 2020 Edition

James Solomon teaching at Morris College
From the Morris College Yearbook

Update (June 14, 2020): In solidarity with the BlackLivesMatter and the #ShutDownSTEM movements, the AMS paused its work on June 10 and convened a long (over 5 hour) meeting of the AMS Governance and Executive Staff. An initial outcome was an Action Plan which includes acknowledging the AMS's history of racist actions.

I hope you will join me in thanking AMS President Jill Pipher, the AMS Council, and all other members of the Governance and Executive Staff for taking such a quick action. Please also thank Dylan Thurston, Talitha Washington, and Catherine A. Roberts who contributed important ideas. Everyone who wrote messages asking the AMS to take action should also receive your thanks.

The Task Force that was formed has been asked to recommend actions to address the impact of discrimination and inequities. I listed some suggested actions on the blogpost "Ask not what HBCUs can do you for you...." Please take a look at the suggestions and consider offering further suggestions (as a blog comment or a message to the Task Force or....)

An easy thing to do is to read some of the other blogposts I've written about African Americans and mathematics:

1. "#MAA Disrupted, David L. Hunter"
2. "#DisruptJMM, 1960 Edition"
3. "Prof. Solomon takes exam at USC"
4. "Arnold Ross and the desegregation of Saint Louis University"
5. "Arnold Ross and the Afro-Am Student Protests"

Message to Readers

The President of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) just issued a statement about systemic racism in US society, especially in light of current events. In particular, she asks society members to reaffirm our commitment to being an inclusive community and to speaking out against injustice.

One way to reaffirm the AMS's commitment to inclusivity would be for it to acknowledge and apologize for its complicity with racial segregation during the early years of the AMS. A first step in this direction would be for the AMS Council to issue such statement.

I sent an email to the AMS President about making a statement, and perhaps you could send a similar message to the AMS Council and the AMS Board of Trustees. Below is a possible email message and a list of (what I think is) everyone's email address. Let me know (through the comments?) if you'd recommend contact information for someone that's different from what I list.

Professional mathematicians, especially those who are AMS members, have an obvious stake in how the society reaffirms its commitment to inclusivity. Many other people have a perhaps less obvious stake too. The AMS plays an important role in, for example, determining who gets to be a math professor, what gets taught in college math classes, how federal funding for STEM is used, and how STEM employers like Google and Facebook operate.

After the list of email addresses, I include some more information about racial discrimination and the AMS.

Model email for US Mathematician:

Dear [PERSON'S NAME],

My name is [YOUR NAME].  I am a member of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) and [DETAILS ABOUT YOUR PROFESSIONAL STATUS].   I am writing to you in your capacity as [
AMS COUNCIL MEMBER/AMS BOARD OF TRUSTEE] in regards to AMS President Jill Pipher's June 2, 2020 message “about systemic racism and violence.”  In that message, she calls upon AMS members to reaffirm our commitment to being an inclusive community and to speaking out against injustice.

I ask that the AMS Council reaffirm this commitment by issuing a statement acknowledging and apologizing for the AMS’s complicity with segregation during the early years of the AMS.  For example, the AMS held meetings at racially segregated universities and offered separate hotel accommodations to African American participants (see e.g. the article "Mathematics and the politics of race: The case of William Claytor" by Parshall). Moreover, this was done despite the AMS having passed a non-discriminatory motion at the request of mathematicians at Fisk University.  As far as I can tell, the AMS has never formally acknowledged this history. 

African Americans mathematicians who experienced de jure segregation in higher education are still living with us today.  While the AMS cannot undo the discrimination these mathematicians experienced in early years of the AMS, the society can apologize for allowing this to have happened so that, as a mathematical community, we can heal and move forward together

Best regards,

[YOUR NAME]

Model email for non-mathematician:

Dear [PERSON'S NAME],

My name is [YOUR NAME].  I am not a member of the American Mathematical Society (AMS), but I have an interest in what the society does because [DETAILS ABOUT WHY MATH IS IMPORTANT TO YOU].  I am writing to you in your capacity as [AMS COUNCIL MEMBER/AMS BOARD OF TRUSTEE] in regards to AMS President Jill Pipher's June 2, 2020 message “about systemic racism and violence.” In that message, she calls upon AMS members to reaffirm their commitment to being an inclusive community and to speaking out against injustice.

 I ask that the AMS Council reaffirm its commitment to inclusivity by issuing a statement acknowledging and apologizing for the AMS’s complicity with segregation during the early years of the AMS.  For example, the AMS held meetings at racially segregated universities and offered separate hotel accommodations to African American participants (see e.g. the article "Mathematics and the politics of race: The case of William Claytor" by Parshall). Moreover, this was done despite the AMS having passed a non-discriminatory motion at the request of mathematicians at Fisk University.  As far as I can tell, the AMS has never formally acknowledged this history. 

African Americans mathematicians who experienced de jure segregation in higher education are still living with us today.  While the AMS cannot undo the discrimination these mathematicians experienced in early years of the AMS, the society can apologize for allowing this to have happened so that, as a mathematical community, we can heal and move forward together

Best regards,

[YOUR NAME]

I would like to add that the AMS is already doing a lot of positive things to increase the participation of African Americans in math, and the things I know about are listed in my blogpost "Ask not what HBCUs can do you for you...."

In that post, I also listed some suggestions for further things the AMS could do, especially as restitution for its complicity with segregation.  If you have additional suggestions, please add them (as comments, maybe?).

AMS Council
Jill C. Pipher: Jill_Pipher@brown.edu
Ruth Charney: charney@brandeis.edu
Abigail Thompson: thompson@math.ucdavis.edu
Francis Su: su@math.hmc.edu
Carla D. Savage:  savage@ncsu.edu
Georgia Benkart: benkart@math.wisc.edu
Brian D. Boe: brian@math.uga.edu
Michel L. Lapidus: lapidus@math.ucr.edu
Steven H. Weintraub: shw2@lehigh.edu
Jane M. Hawkins: jmh@unc.edu
Zbigniew H. Nitecki: zbigniew.nitecki@tufts.edu
Susan J. Friedlander: susanfri@usc.edu
Peter Sarnak: sarnak@math.ias.edu
Ravi Vakil: vakil@math.stanford.edu
Henry Cohn: cohn@microsoft.com
Sergey V. Fomin: fomin@umich.edu
Danny C. Calegari: dannyc@math.uchicago.edu
Robert M. Guralnick: guralnic@usc.edu
Susanne C. Brenner: brenner@math.lsu.edu
Matthew A. Papanikolas: papanikolas@tamu.edu, map@math.tamu.
Henri Darmon: darmon@math.mcgill.ca
Erika T. Camacho: erika.camacho@asu.edu
Victor Reiner: reiner@umn.edu
Brooke Shipley: shipleyb@uic.edu
Gigliola Staffilani: gigliola@math.mit.edu
Anthony Várilly-Alvarado: av15@rice.edu
Dan Freed: dafr@math.utexas.edu
Susan Loepp: sloepp@williams.edu
Kasso A. Okoudjou: kasso@math.umd.edu or kasso@mit.edu
Maria Cristina Pereyra: crisp@math.unm.edu
Melanie Matchett Wood: mmwood@berkeley.edu
Stephan Ramon Garcia: stephan.garcia@pomona.edu
Rosa C. Orellana: Rosa.C.Orellana@dartmouth.edu
Dylan P. Thurston: dpthurst@indiana.edu
Maggy Tomova: maggy-tomova@uiowa.edu
Bianca Viray: bviray@uw.edu

AMS Board of Trustees
Matthew Ando: mando@illinois.edu
Ralph L. Cohen: rlc@stanford.edu
Jane M. Hawkins: jmh@unc.edu
Bryna Kra: kra@math.northwestern.edu
Zbigniew H. Nitecki: zbigniew.nitecki@tufts.edu
Jill C. Pipher: Jill_Pipher@brown.edu
Joseph H. Silverman: joseph_silverman@brown.edu
Judy L. Walker: judy.walker@unl.edu


Documented Events 

1. At the 1936 AMS meeting at Duke University, William Claytor was barred from the (whites-only) hotel reserved for conference participants and had to stay at the private residence of an African American family.
2. In 1947, J. Ernest Wilkins, Jr. was invited by the AMS Associate Secretary to attend the annual AMS meeting held at the University of Georgia.  As an African American, Wilkins was unable to stay at the (whites-only) hotels offered by the organizers or dine at the (whites-only) restaurants they offered.  However, the AMS Associate Secretary informed him that food and lodging could be provided for him by an African American family.  Wilkins chose not participate in the meeting.
3. While a professor at Howard University, David Blackwell traveled to an AMS meeting in Virginia, but upon arriving found that he was not allowed to stay at the dormitory that had been reserved for participants.  He then left the meeting.
4. In 1951, mathematicians at Fisk University requested that the AMS insert into its bylaws "explicit and effective protection of the rights of all members to participate fully freely and equally" in its affairs without regard to race.  The AMS did not modify its bylaws, although it did pass a non-discriminatory motion which seems to have had limited impact.  The full text of the request is reproduced below.
5. In 1951, the AMS sold its library to the University of Georgia.  At the time, African Americans were not allowed to use the university library, and the AMS took no action to secure access for African American AMS members.  (The University of Georgia was segregated until 1961 when Hamilton Holmes and Charlayne Hunter-Gault enrolled.)
6. Some organizers of AMS meetings offered separate hotel accommodations to African American participants.  For example, this occurred at the 551st meeting at Duke University in 1958.
7. Some AMS meetings were held at segregated universities and colleges.  For example, a sectional meeting in 1954 was held at the University of Alabama which did not admit African Americans until 1956. 

Of course, the above list is not comprehensive, and almost certainly many discriminatory acts went undocumented.

Request from the Fisk University Mathematics Department published in Science Magazine

References

1. Donaldson JA. Black Americans in mathematics. A century of mathematics in America, Part III, 449–469, Hist. Math., 3, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, 1989
2. Goins E. A dream deferred: 50 years of blacks in mathematics (January 31, 2019), MAA Invited Address at the 2019 JMM. Accessed July 17, 2019.
3. Kass JK.  James L. Solomon and the end of segregation at the University of South Carolina, Notices Amer. Math. Soc. 67 (2020), no. 2, 192–200.
4. Kass JK.  "#MAADisrupted, David L. Hunter."  Blind Man with a Math Degree (blog).  June 7, 2020. (Accessed June 9, 2020).
5. Kass JK.  "#DisruptJMM, 1960 Edition."  Blind Man with a Math Degree (blog).  February 1, 2020. (Accessed June 9, 2020).
6. Lorch L, Boyd E, Brown W,  Holloway HM.  (1951, August 10) Discriminatory Practices [Comments and Communications], Science, Vol 114 (2954) (10 August, 1951), Issue p. 161.
7. Lorch L. The painful path towards inclusiveness, A century of mathematical meetings (Case BA, ed.), American Mathematical Society, 1996, pp. 83–102.
8. Nkwanta A, Barber JE. African-American mathematicians and the Mathematical Association of America (1995), MAA Centennial, Historical Articles. Accessed July 17, 2019.
9. Newell VK, Gipson JH, Rich LW, Stubblefield B. Black mathematicians and their works, Dorrance, 1980.  
10. Parshall KH. Mathematics and the politics of race: The case of William Claytor (PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1933), Amer. Math. Monthly, 123(3):214–240, 2016.
11. Pearson M. Dr Shabazz Masjid Muhammad Dunbar Memoriam Video. June 12, 2015. (Accessed July 17, 2019).
12. Southeastern Section of the MAA. Three score and ten: a history of the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America 1922–1992 (April 1995), MAA Centennial, Historical Articles. Accessed July 17, 2019.