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| Philander Smith Campus Philander Smith Yearbook, 1950 |
Simon Grünzweig appears to have started a job search toward the end of 1951, as he was finishing his PhD at the University of Pittsburgh. He was helped in his job search by the International Rescue Committee, which made inquiries on his behalf. By December, the president of Philander Smith College, M. LaFayette Harris, was expressing interest in hiring Grünzweig.
President Harris solicited an evaluation of Grünzweig from Lincoln University, his previous employer. At Lincoln, President Bond, despite his earlier frustrations with Grünzweig as a teacher, gave a positive evaluation. He wrote that he found Grünzweig and his wife to be "very lovable people," thought Grünzweig would fit in at Philander, and stated that he would "think well of re-employing" Grünzweig if there was an opening at Lincoln. The last statement was disingenuous as about a year earlier Bond had said that Grünzweig was not a very good teacher and had no future at Lincoln.
In his evaluation, Bond acknowledged that Grünzweig had initially had language difficulties, but stated that he rapidly overcame them. Bond's evaluation seems to have convinced Philander Smith College to hire Grünzweig: in July 1952, the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society announced that Grünzweig had been appointed to a professorship at Philander Smith. A month later Grünzweig received his PhD, and by Fall, he was teaching at the college.
President Harris solicited an evaluation of Grünzweig from Lincoln University, his previous employer. At Lincoln, President Bond, despite his earlier frustrations with Grünzweig as a teacher, gave a positive evaluation. He wrote that he found Grünzweig and his wife to be "very lovable people," thought Grünzweig would fit in at Philander, and stated that he would "think well of re-employing" Grünzweig if there was an opening at Lincoln. The last statement was disingenuous as about a year earlier Bond had said that Grünzweig was not a very good teacher and had no future at Lincoln.
In his evaluation, Bond acknowledged that Grünzweig had initially had language difficulties, but stated that he rapidly overcame them. Bond's evaluation seems to have convinced Philander Smith College to hire Grünzweig: in July 1952, the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society announced that Grünzweig had been appointed to a professorship at Philander Smith. A month later Grünzweig received his PhD, and by Fall, he was teaching at the college.
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| Philander Smith College President Harris Philander Smith Yearbook |
Like Lincoln University, Philander Smith College was (and still is) a private Historically Black College (or HBCU). However, in many respects, Lincoln and Philander were very different. Philander Smith College was located in Little Rock, Arkansas. Unlike Pennsylvania, Arkansas is a former Confederate state that, during the 1950s, enforced racial separation through state law. Little Rock was not a major industrial city like Pittsburgh (where Grünzweig had most recently been living), but it was also not the small village he'd been living in while teaching at Lincoln. Little Rock is the state capital and a regional cultural and economic center. In 1950, the greater metropolitan area was home to about 200,000 people (making it roughly one-third the size of Pittsburgh). Of those 200,000 residents, roughly one-quarter were Black.
In comparison with Lincoln, the student body at Philander was larger and more regional. In Fall 1949, 1,209 students attended Philander, more than twice as many students as were attending Lincoln. Essentially all of Philander's students were from within the state, many from improvised rural areas. Lincoln drew students from all of the U.S. with about half of the student body coming from out-of-state.
Perhaps the biggest difference in terms of campus atmosphere was the presence of woman. Roughly half of the Philander's student body was female, many of whom women were older schoolteachers who were trying to receive B.A. degrees while working. Lincoln, on the other hand, was not only all-male, but because of the university's physical isolation, the only women a typical student would encounter would be the wives and daughters of Lincoln's all-male faculty.
Philander's offerings included more vocational training than Lincoln. Lincoln maintained a small seminary (enrolling about 20 students in a typical year), but the core of its educational mission was training Black leaders through a traditional liberal arts education. Philander, by contrast, offered a liberal arts education, but students could also study subjects like home economics, physical education, secretarial studies, and social work. Additionally, the college ran Division of Teacher Education (similar to a School of Education) and offered special programs in cosmetology and engineering.
In comparison with Lincoln, the student body at Philander was larger and more regional. In Fall 1949, 1,209 students attended Philander, more than twice as many students as were attending Lincoln. Essentially all of Philander's students were from within the state, many from improvised rural areas. Lincoln drew students from all of the U.S. with about half of the student body coming from out-of-state.
Perhaps the biggest difference in terms of campus atmosphere was the presence of woman. Roughly half of the Philander's student body was female, many of whom women were older schoolteachers who were trying to receive B.A. degrees while working. Lincoln, on the other hand, was not only all-male, but because of the university's physical isolation, the only women a typical student would encounter would be the wives and daughters of Lincoln's all-male faculty.
Philander's offerings included more vocational training than Lincoln. Lincoln maintained a small seminary (enrolling about 20 students in a typical year), but the core of its educational mission was training Black leaders through a traditional liberal arts education. Philander, by contrast, offered a liberal arts education, but students could also study subjects like home economics, physical education, secretarial studies, and social work. Additionally, the college ran Division of Teacher Education (similar to a School of Education) and offered special programs in cosmetology and engineering.
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| Garland D. Kyle From University of Minnesota website "A Campus Divided" |
Math instruction at Philander was in transition before Grünzweig arrived. The college had employed a math PhD, Garland Dean Kyle. Professor Kyle was a Black man who had received a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1948 for his dissertation "Contributions to the theory of multivariate statistical analysis: with some special applications to studies of differential abilities in college mathematics." Kyle had started teaching at Philander in 1947, the year before he completed his PhD. With Kyle on faculty, Philander was able to offer a level of math education unavailable at most HBCUs. Many HBCUs only employed a few PhDs across all fields, and recruiting in physical sciences like math was especially challenging as fewer than 60 Blacks been awarded PhDs in the physical sciences by 1943.
Kyle left Philander in 1949 (several years before Grünzweig arrived) to teach at Arkansas AM&N College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). His departure created a gap in the math teaching. In the years before Grünzweig arrived, the math classes were taught by four instructors: Ernest Cuby Briggs, Jr, Frederick Griffin, Charles Daniel Henry, and Maurice Glenn Mynatt. All four had appointments as professors of math and physics (Mynatt was an assistant professor; the others were associate professors, and Henry also had an appointment in the Department of Physical Education), but only Griffin had advanced training in math.
Kyle left Philander in 1949 (several years before Grünzweig arrived) to teach at Arkansas AM&N College (now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff). His departure created a gap in the math teaching. In the years before Grünzweig arrived, the math classes were taught by four instructors: Ernest Cuby Briggs, Jr, Frederick Griffin, Charles Daniel Henry, and Maurice Glenn Mynatt. All four had appointments as professors of math and physics (Mynatt was an assistant professor; the others were associate professors, and Henry also had an appointment in the Department of Physical Education), but only Griffin had advanced training in math.
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| Frederick Griffin Philander Smith Yearbook |
Griffin had been working as an associate professor in math and physics at Philander since 1948. He had come to the college a few years after receiving his M.S. degree from the University of Michigan.
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| Ernest Cuby Briggs, Jr. Philander Smith Yearbook, 1951 |
Briggs was trained as a physicist: he had received an M.S. degree from New York University and a B.S. from Virginia State College. He been hired at Philander in 1949, the year before he completed his masters degree.
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| Charles Daniel Henry Philander Smith Yearbook, 1951 |
Henry and Mynatt had limited training in quantitative subjects. Mynett had received an M.A. in education from Northwestern University in 1948. Henry primarily taught physical education and had received a 1948 M.A.in physical education from the University of Iowa and was working on his Ph.D. Both Henry and Mynatt had arrived at Philander in 1948, the year they received their degrees.
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| Maurice Glenn Mynatt Philander Smith Yearbook |
An inspection of their photos shows that all the math faculty were Black, but this did not reflect general diversity of the college faculty. Philander had long had an integrated faculty, and in fact, Grünzweig was not the first Jewish refugee to teach at the college. Three Jewish refugees had been hired in 1950: Louis Hugo Frank and Georg and Wilma (or Wilhelmina) Iggers. A fourth, Reinhart S. Ross, was hired the next year.
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| Louis Hugo Frank Philander Smith Yearbook, 1951 |
Professor Frank was a Chemistry Professor and was about 20 years older than Grünzweig. Frank had a rather unusual academic history. He had moved to Japan in 1913 after receiving his PhD from Berlin University. He remained in Japan until 1949 and thus largely escaped the anti-Semitic violence experienced by most European Jews as the Japanese government did not adopt any official policy against Jews despite being allied with Nazi Germany. However, Frank did experience the harshness of life in wartime Japan during the 1940s and, after the war, his presence as a foreigner was viewed negatively by his coworkers. In 1949, he was made to resign. His position at Philander Smith was his first after leaving Japan.
Georg and Wilma Iggers and Reinhart Ross were considerable younger than Grünzweig and Frank. They had all left Europe as teenagers and been educated in the U.S.
Georg and Wilma Iggers and Reinhart Ross were considerable younger than Grünzweig and Frank. They had all left Europe as teenagers and been educated in the U.S.
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| Reinhart S. Ross |
Reinhart S. Ross was originally from Hamburg, Germany, but he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1940. He had studied music at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), and he was awarded a PhD for his dissertation "Symphony for voices, choir, and orchestra" in 1951. He arrived at Philander the next year, in 1952.
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| Georg Iggers Philander Yearbook, 1954 |
Georg was from Germany, while Wilma was Czechoslovakia. They had met at the University of Chicago while studying as PhD students. They were hired by Philander in 1950, as they were completed their PhDs. Georg graduated in 1951 with the history dissertation "The social philosophy of the Saint-Simonians," and Wilma graduated a year later with the German Studies dissertation "Karl Kraus, a Viennese critic of the twentieth century"
The Iggers' experiences at Philander are representative of those of the professors featured in the documentary From Swastika to Jim Crow. Both Georg and Wilma were politically active and involved with desegregation and the civil rights movement. You can watch them talk about their experiences here and here.
I will talk about what Grünzweig did while at Philander in the next blogpost.
The Iggers' experiences at Philander are representative of those of the professors featured in the documentary From Swastika to Jim Crow. Both Georg and Wilma were politically active and involved with desegregation and the civil rights movement. You can watch them talk about their experiences here and here.
I will talk about what Grünzweig did while at Philander in the next blogpost.
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| Wilma Iggers Philander Yearbook, 1954 |
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