Blind man with a math degree: Draft of MAA Focus Article

David L. Hunter
From the 1964 Mecklenburg College Yearbook

David L. Hunter with the Math Club
From 1964 Mecklenburg College Yearbook

David L. Hunter with Math Club
From 1962 Mecklenburg College Yearbook

David L. Hunter with Math Class
From 1963 Mecklenburg College Yearbook

David L. Hunter with Chess Club
From 1964 Mecklenburg College Yearbook

Although largely unnoticed, the Mathematical Association of American (MAA) passed an important anniversary in 2017. That was the 45th anniversary of the desegregation of the MAA sectional meetings. Prior to the civil rights movement, African Americans mathematicians, especially those working in the South, often found themselves excluded from professional events like MAA sectional meetings. A few incidents of discrimination, especially in the Southeastern section, have been well-documented. Less documented is how the meetings of the Southeastern section were ultimately desegregated. While MAA Presidents and members of the Board of Governors were asked to take action on this issue, their actions had limited impact. In the end, meetings were desegregated by David L. Hunter and students at Bennett College.

Largely drawing on the article "African-American Mathematicians and the Mathematical Association of America" (1995) by Asamoah Nkwanta and Janet E. Barber and "A History of Minority Participation in the Southeastern Section" (1995) by E. T. Falconer, H. J. Walton, J. E. Wilkins, Jr., A. A. Shabazz, and S. T. Bozeman, we will recall two of the discriminatory acts and how Dr. Hunter desegregated the meeting. We will then give a biographical sketch of Hunter, drawing on oral history interviews with him that were conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1996 and 2005.

The best documented act of discrimination at an MAA meeting occurred at a 1951 meeting of the Southeastern section held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. A group of African American mathematicians from Fisk University registered to attend the meeting. However, Nashville was a racially segregated city, and the organizers informed the Fisk mathematicians that they were not allowed to attend the banquet dinner because of their race. The Fisk mathematicians wrote a letter of protest to the MAA Board of Governors. The Board responded by passing a resolution expressing the MAA’s intent to conduct its activities in a non-discriminatory manner and directed individual sectional officers to act in a manner consistent with this intent.

At the time, the Fisk mathematicians expressed concern about the resolution: it offered no concrete protection. Their concern proved valid. In 1960, a meeting of the Southeastern section was held at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. The meeting was held at an off-campus hotel as the university was racially segregated. A group of African American mathematicians from Atlanta University tried to participate in the meeting. However, upon arriving in Columbia, they were informed that they could not stay at the hotel as it was whites-only. The Atlanta mathematicians left the meeting in protest.

Upon returning to Atlanta, Atlanta University math chair Abdulalim Shabazz (then going by "Lonnie Cross") issued a press release protesting the discrimination he and his colleagues had experienced. The press release made national news and was reported by Jet magazine, for example. Although hosting a meeting at a whites-only hotel was clearly contrary to the MAA’s non-discrimination resolution, the MAA took no action and reported it as though no protest had taken place.

Both the incident at Vanderbilt and the incident at Atlanta are reasonably well-documented. Less well-documented is when African Americans began fully participating in the Southeastern section. The story deserves to be better known. Although it took over a decade, the meetings of the Southeastern section were ultimately desegregated by Dr. Shabazz’s former student David L. Hunter.

Now retired, Dr. Hunter spent most of his career working at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was elected Vice-Chairman of the Southeastern section in 1972, and he held the position until 1975.

During Hunter’s vice-chairmanship, the Southeastern section saw remarkable progress in making meetings accessible to African Americans. Prior to his chairmanship, it appears that no African American had presented at a meeting of the Southeastern section, although the MAA had been in existence for over five decades. From 1972 to 1974, African American students from Bennett College regularly gave presentations. The students who presented were Nedra Hamer, Denise L. Johnson, Nanette B. Lowe, Gloria J. Philips, Bessie Tarpley, Reba M. Turner, and Ruby D. William. African American participation at these meetings was one of the highest in the MAA’s history.

What was the professional trajectory of the man who achieved this? Dr. Hunter was born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1933. After graduating from high school, Hunter stayed in Charlotte and attended Johnson C. Smith University. 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 CPCC.)

When he was hired by Carver, Hunter agreed that he would get a master's degree. After his first year of teaching (in Summer, 1958), he started taking graduate courses at Atlanta University. He enjoyed his studies and found the Department Chair Dr. 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 for the 1959-1960 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. 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 they waited in line, the cafeteria's clientele started to change: well-dressed businessmen 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 the academic year, Hunter had done well in his coursework. He submitted his M.S. thesis "Lecture in the theory of functions of a complex variable, Part II" at the end of summer. With the thesis submitted, Hunter was ready to graduate except that 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 started to desegregate 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 Mecklenburg would be shutdown and only a few African American teachers would keep their jobs. Anticipating that he would soon be fired, Hunter began to apply for jobs as a high school teacher. However, he was told that he would be hired at 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 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 about 15 people working at Mecklenburg, Hunter was one of only a handful to be hired at CPCC.

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.

Hunter‘s election to the position of Vice Chairman of the Southeastern section of the MAA took place after he had been teaching at CPCC for roughly a decade. Around the time his vice chairmanship ended, he became increasingly 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 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’ Distinguished Service Award.

Upon reflecting on Hunter’s contributions to the MAA, I am struck by the fact that they were made possible by the sacrifices of a number of mathematicians, especially African American mathematicians. Both Lee Lorch and Abdulalim Shabazz faced major repercussions for challenging segregation. They were under FBI surveillance for parts of the 1950s and 1960s. Ultimately, they lost their jobs. Lorch was forced to move to Canada for work. Shabazz left academia for about a decade to work in the Nation of Islam. Opposing segregation also took a toll on Bennett College. Many of the college’s students were jailed for participating in the civil rights movement.

The costs these people paid led to remarkable progress during the 1970s. However, it is unclear how much progress has been sustained. No good statistics are available, but it appears that the growth in African American participation in the Southeastern section that was achieved during Hunter’s vice chairmanship was not sustained. The fiftieth anniversary of Hunter’s vice chairmanship will occur in two years. I hope all MAA members will use that time to reflect on Hunter’s contributions and how to build on them.

Abstract for 1960 talk by Shabazz in the Monthly
No mention was made that Shabazz left in protest before giving the talk
The American Mathematical Monthly, (Aug. - Sep., 1960), p. 728