For Tech's first black students, a quiet integration

In September 1961, Ford Greene, Ralph Long, Jr. and Lawrence Williams made history when they strolled onto campus as the first black students to enroll at Tech.

It was an era when the Civil Rights movement was gaining strength and deep streaks of racism still ran through the southeastern United States. As a result, the level of outcry and violent opposition from the students and staff was...well, nonexistent.

Following the Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, then-President Edwin Davies Harrison had watched as violence erupted at the University of Georgia two days after it had been integrated at the direction of a federal judge in Macon.

This had followed the now-infamous Sugar Bowl crisis of 1956, when the campus erupted in protest over Tech's decision not to play in the Sugar Bowl because the opposing team - the University of Pittsburgh - had a black fullback.

Harrison embarked on a massive undertaking to avoid a similar upheaval, making Tech the first university in the Southeast to integrate peacefully and without a court order.

" Dr. Harrison had done an amazing job of engineering the whole project in that he was extremely cautious about preparing the faculty [and] the staff [and] the student body, " said Marilyn Somers, Director of Tech's Living History Program.

Standing before an assembly of the student body, Harrison said that any student caught resisting or protesting the arrival of Tech's first black students would be expelled immediately.

He also hosted a series of dinners between the families of the new students and the student leaders to allow them to become acquainted with one another.

And in an unusual twist, he asked the Atlanta police to keep the media off the premises to avoid fanfare.

" Surprisingly, there wasn't a lot of...interest on the part of the student community. Everybody at Tech apparently was so busy with projects... [that] nobody paid a lot of attention to it, " Somers said.

" There was no disruption at all. Everything went on as normal, and [the new students] quickly got into the scholastic life, " she said.

Long and Williams stayed at Tech only a short time before they left to pursue other interests, but Greene excelled academically thanks to years of preparation from his own family. Greene's parents were educators with dreams of their son becoming the first to integrate Tech, so they raised him with a rich cultural and academic background and encouraged him to excel in sports.

" He felt his parents were grooming him to come and be part of the integration, " Somers said. " No one knew when it was going to actually take place, but there were many outstanding young students in the black community that were being told,' Do the best you can, and you could be the one to integrate.' It just happened that it fell on the shoulders of Ford Greene. "

Greene eventually left as well when the administration refused to let him play on the Institute's football team, but he paved the way for many other notable figures in the following decade:

Ronald Yancy had applied before Greene in 1961 but wasn't accepted until the fall quarter of 1962, due to some hesitation on the administration's part. He was awarded a degree in electrical engineering in 1965, marking this year as the 40th anniversary of the first black student to graduate from Tech.

Enoch Ward, a chemical engineering major, became the first black student to integrate campus housing in 1964. He was forced to change roommates when the parents of his original roommate protested the pairing of Ward with their son.

Eddie McAshen, Tech's first black athlete, enrolled in 1969 on a football scholarship.

Clemmie B. Whatley became the first black female student to graduate from Tech when she was awarded a masters degree in mathematics in 1973.

Somers, who has interviewed several of these people and others, said that their experience was marred only by a sense of social isolation, which would be expected at an institution that was predominantly white.

" It's really amazing when you talk to these people, " Somers said. " They have recollections of feeling isolated, but none of them felt any animosity from any professors that they ever expressed to me. "

Their transition into student life went just as quietly. Students either ignored them or welcomed them with open arms.

" All the organizations on campus were receptive to them, " Somers said.

" They could come to the Y, they could go to the Baptist Student Union. They joined band [and the] Glee Club...All of them were very, very active students. "

Many of Tech's early black graduates went on to pursue successful careers in a variety of fields. When they look back, Somers said, they regard their experience at Tech as invaluable.

" If you look at their careers after they graduated from Tech, they all have brilliant careers, " Somers said. " Well, obviously...this was right place for them to be, and they did well. "

Even the early pioneers who did not graduate from Tech helped establish a sense of community between themselves and the rest of the student body, which encouraged an increasingly larger number of black students to enroll.

" They formed close relationships. Everybody knew everybody.They encouraged each other. They supported each other, " Somers said. " They were definitely role models for the black community. Everybody was rooting from them. Everybody wanted them to succeed, and most of them did. "

The era since the days of Greene and others has seen remarkable improvements in opportunities for black students on campus, including the creation of the Office of Minority Educational Development, the introduction of black fraternities and sororities, and the birth of the African-American Student Union.

The Technique will have more about the history of African Americans at Tech during Black History Month.