"Racial Progress in Oberlin," continued...
The upshot of this was that students were uncertain about what could be done. The opinions of lower-level employees of the College, who should never have been so influential, too often held. Only one or two matrons were willing to reveal for a student survey whether they would object to a black and a white woman rooming together. Most would not give a clear answer. One matron who did speak said, if so confronted she would “want to know what’s wrong with both of them.” Students heard various versions of this and other incidents and were hesitant to venture toward an interracial social life lest they be chastised for so doing. At two non-College residences for women there were no African Americans nor could the matrons recall that there ever had been. Matrons at both said they never received applications from African Americans. A student committee reported that the general belief among these women was that they would not be admitted in these two dormitories and thus they seldom listed one as a first preference, if at all. The hesitant position taken by the Dean of College Men, Edward F. Bosworth, merely increased uncertainties. When a student committee interviewed him about what was permitted in the areas of interracial male rooming and dating, Bosworth requested that his answers not be put into the committee’s report lest they be misinterpreted. The committee thus did not pass on in its report what it learned from him.9
At the end of the 1930s one of the irritants for students was an administrative ban against the appearance of African American dance bands. A feature of the decade 1935-1945 was the tremendous popularity of dance bands. The “big band era” caught the enthusiasm of college students as much as any and dancing to swing music stood high on the list of recreational preferences. There were proms and hops and mixers where the music ranged from the playing of phonograph records to the hiring of “name” bands that visited college campuses across the country. There were sweet bands and hot bands and enough varieties in between to supply the wants of everyone. Interest in the music caused followers to hang upon every word about the bands and the musicians themselves, with Oberlin students no different than students elsewhere. Early in 1939 a column began in the Oberlin Review titled “Swing Spot” in which Bob Greer reported upon music, especially phonograph records, played by name dance bands. He also provided information about where they were playing and gave items of interest about band personnel. A student, for example, who wished to know what groups would be appearing in Cleveland could keep up quite well as a regular reader of the Greer column.
The ban on African American bands on campus had been imposed following the appearance of the Chick Webb Orchestra, featuring singer Ella Fitzgerald, at the Senior Prom, June 14, 1938. The dance had been held in Wilder Hall (then known as the Men’s Building) which was not an easy place to secure from gate crashers. Some townspeople, a majority of whom were African Americans, managed to get in and complaints resulted. After June 14, students were not allowed to hire any more African American bands. However, the fact that white musicians charged union scale while black musicians did not, caused the administration late in 1940 to permit African American student musicians and individuals from the community to perform at smaller College functions. In addition, there were no facilities in which to hold dances that accommodated over 200 couples at a time and this made it costly for students who wished to hear name bands. African American bands could have been hired for less than white bands except that the ban prohibited their appearing on campus.Bob Greer questioned the ban in an October 1940 column addressing the issue with several points, one of which was that the “spirit of liberalism that the [C]ollege has often emphasized upon us should not be impaired by race discrimination.” The enthusiastic response to his column caused Greer to sponsor a petition asking for the removal of the ban. Only about one student in twenty-five refused to sign when asked. In December, after discussing the matter before a large audience, the student council created a committee that sent a memo to the administration requesting an end to the ban. The reply the committee received was signed by President Wilkins, Dean Wittke, and Director of Recreation, Ellen B. Hatch, an assistant professor. The three administrators said they did not believe that African Americans should be brought to the campus if their performance would be likely to leave an “impression of cultural inferiority.” Welcome were such persons as Marian Anderson, Roland Hayes, Mordecai Johnson and Howard Thurman, but “ordinary Negro bands” were liable to impair the “general attitude” toward African Americans and thus increase racial misunderstanding, unfair as this might be. The presence on campus of large numbers of uninvited African Americans would result in ill-will and the appearance of their bands would tend to produce such uninvited persons. The present rule should be retained.
The student committee countered that the administration’s rule constituted race discrimination “contrary to the ideals for which Oberlin has always stood.” Among the points made were that black bands could make great cultural contributions because in the field of jazz, African Americans were superior to whites; that if a band’s members acted improperly that band could be prohibited from further appearances: after all, the only band that had caused unfavorable reactions were members of a white band who had drunk too much prior to their appearance. Additionally, the obstreperous conduct that had brought on the ban had been caused by both white and black youths and was a youth problem, not a race problem, which could be prevented by proper policing of those who attended the dances. The students concluded that they did not believe “the [C]ollege can ever build up a spirit of racial equality … by refusing members of one race the right to display their art in Oberlin.”
President Wilkins replied that the ban did not constitute race discrimination because it barred only imported African American bands, not bands composed of students or townspeople; that exclusion was a preventative action and properly a part of a sound race relations program; and that adverse reactions to the events during the Webb orchestra’s appearance had been greater than the students believed. Wilkins commended one of the authors of the student memo for the spirit in which it was written and for the general desire to improve race relations.
As an outgrowth of the inability of the two groups to agree, a subcommittee on dance bands was appointed by Wilkins. Its recommendations, approved by the faculty the following February, allowed student groups to submit names of outside bands to a special committee which would in turn select one band from the list. Secretary Love, chairman of the committee, assured the students that the only criterion would be quality of musical performance. The Duke Ellington Orchestra’s appearance at the Junior Prom, May 16, 1941, marked the end of the ban.10
9 The Oberlin Review, Mar. 24, 1942. Marguerite Woodworth to Wilkins, Aug. 15, 1942, Wilkins Papers, Box 84. Raymond H. Stetson to C.V. Hudgins, April 15, 1943, March 13, 1944, 30/13, Box 3. “Report to the Student Council of the Special Committee to Investigate Negro Discrimination on the Oberlin Campus,” Nov. 27, 1942, Records of the Student Senate, Box 3, OCA.
10Review, Feb. 10, 1939; Mar. 19, May 7, Oct. 22, Nov. 12, Dec. 10, 17, 1940; Feb. 14, 18, May 9, 1941. “Memorandum on the Rule Against the Importation of Negro Dance Bands,” Dec. 6, 1940; “Student Reply to the memorandum …,” n.d.; Wilkins to “Dear Hilly,” [Hilliard Goldberg] Dec. 16, 1940, Wilkins Papers, Box 58. Prudential Committee Minutes, Feb. 5, 1941. General Faculty Minutes, Feb. 11, 1941. General Faculty Minutes, Feb. 11, 1941, OCA.