1970
Summer, 1975 —
James Breedlove was accepted by the Student Publications Board as the new
editor in chief. A newcomer with no previous experience at The Battalion, the staff
was resentful of Breedlove. Problems grew and a large turnover began. Breedlove
resigned in the spring of 1976 from continuing problems with the staff.
— Breedlove
Spring, 1976 —
The Battalion and the journalism department at A&M begin to work together. The paper
became a part of the lab requirement for intermediate journalism classes. Bob Rogers,
chairman of the Student Publications Board (presently journalism undergraduate advisor)
was instrumental in the change. It was officially ended in August of 1991. wamss.®
0 0 ^
dp
Thursday, Se]
Page 10
1893 - The Battalion • 1993
Thursday, September38,
1966-
Bat
1963 — Breaking the racial barrier
Black former students reflect on A&M life
past & presen
By Stephanie Pattillo
• The Battalion
Unlike the the protest and controversy
over the enrollment of women at Texas
A&M University, blacks quietly integrated
June 3, 1963, when A&M admitted three
black students to the summer session.
Although Clarence Dixon Jr., the first
black to receive a degree from A&M, grad
uated in May 1967, the history of blacks at
A&M in The Battalion is obscure until the
late 1970s.
According to the April 28, 1978 issue of
The Battalion, a nine-person investigation
team from the Department of Health Edu
cation and Welfare (HEW) began an inves
tigation of the University’s desegregation
policies. Texas A&M was one of four
Texas schools selected for these rigorous in
vestigations of racial segregation.
In 1977, Texas A&M s fall enrollment
was 29,414 students, including 111 blacks
(0.37 percent) and 244 Hispanic students
(0.83 percent). At that time, The Battalion
reported that A&M did not have a minori
ty recruiting program.
Richard Lewis, Class of‘78 and member
of the Black Culture Advanced and Unified
at A&M, said in the May 4, 1978, issue of
The Battalion the main reason more blacks
did not come to Texas A&M is a lack of
communication between the school and
prospective black students.
“Blacks don’t have a tradition or heritage
of coming here,” he said. “This University
is going to have to desegregate. They are
going to have to recruit minority students
with the same vigor with which they recruit
black athletes.”
In the summer of 1981, HEW released
its report on desegregation at Texas A&M.
The December 6, 1982, issue of The Bat
talion cited the report as saying Texas
schools did not comply with Title VT of the
1964 Civil Rights Act,, which states that
discrimination in federal programs is pro
hibited on the basis of race, color or na
tional origin. Each university system in the
state was asked to ^ubmit its own desegre
gation plan.
Texas A&M’s plan called for an increase
of 105 black and 135 Hispanic students in
1982, and 535 black and 675 Hispanics by
1986.
The A&M Board c>f Regents published a
policy statement in Decemoer 1 980 outlin
ing general steps taken to “provide an equal
educational opportunity” and “operate on a
totally desegregated basis, ” according to
The Battalion’s March 23, 1981 issue.
But by 1983, articles in The Battalion
still said minorities at A&M were under
represented.
Kevin Carreathers, director of multicul
tural services, said A&M in 1993 still hasn’t
achieved true integration.
“Have we fully integrated in all aspects
of A&M? No,” he said. “But there are op
portunities for integration in all aspects of
the University to take place. We still have
organizations that, whether minority or
non-minority, the focus is still on one eth-
Gay said he remembers one of his pro-
~ A
nty.
He
said some departments on campus
the
still have an all-white faculty while other
departments are very diverse.
In the Jan. 25, 1983, issue of the The
Battalion, DeAndrea Davis, Class of ‘84
and former president of the National Soci
ety of Black Engineers, said A&M’s tradi
tions may contribute to. the alienation some
minorities feel.
“Most traditions were initiated at a time
when virtually no minorities attended,” he
said. “Since the school is so heavy on tradi
tions, some minority students may feel
alienated.”
In that article, a Hispanic student who
asked to remain unnamed, said the attitude
toward minority students by other students
ma^ be a cause of the low minority rate.
‘In general you can tell there are some
prejudices, but they are all subtle and well-
hidden,” he said.
But Hugh T. McElroy Jr., associate di
rector of human resources and Class of‘71,
remembers an incident that occurred when
he was living on the fourth floor of Fowler
Hall.
“I remember once my roommate and I
had a cross burned in front of our dorm
room,” he said.
Although McElroy, A&M’s first black to
start on the football team, encountered this
hostile event, he said there was not open,
continuous hostility on campus.
“While that act may have symbolized
the way many people feel, it was an atypical
occurrence.”
Vergel L. Gay Jr., Class of ‘73, said he
didn’t feel welcome as an A&M freshman
in‘1969.
“Fundamemklly what I did not feel was
an overall attitude of acceptance that cut
across social and class barriers,” he said.
fessors referring to an area in Bryan-College
Station as “colored town.” And although
the professor later apologized, Gay ex
plained that was just a sign of the insensi
tivity of the individuals and times.
McElroy said he was flabbergasted to
hear that Fred McClure was elected in
1976 as the first black student body presi
dent and that Ronnie McDonald was
named the first non-reg black yell leader in
1991.
The first black woman received an MBA
in 1983, according to The Battalion. Mel-
va Robinson Pratt said in the May 6, 1983
issue of the campus newspaper that she is
proud to be the first black woman to get an
MBA at A&M but said it is “rather sad it
took 20 years for one black woman to grad
uate with an MBA.”
The official fall 1993 enrollment num
bers from the registrars’ office are 42,524
students on the main campus in College
Station. Blacks make up 3 percent of the
student body with fall enrollment totaling
1,220. Hispanics total 8 percent of the
student body with fall enrollment totaling
3,594.
The rate of increase of black students
has outpaced the growth of the University
by about three to one, McElroy said.
The numbers were so negative to begin
with, and they are still meager now, he said.
But according to articles in Thp
ion, since the early ‘80s, the admii>$Smition
has worked to recruit and retain minorities.
Carreathers said A&M just didn’t have
the powers in the administration or Associ
ation of Former Students until the early
‘80s to make recruitment and retainment
of minorities a priority.
Gay said he has noticed an attitude
change by the University since he was in
school.
“The administration at the time were
tolerant, but not sensitive,” he said. “I feel
the University did not understand what
was happening when the the first blacks
came to A&M. ’
McElroy said he sees the administration
moving in the right direction although not
as fast as he’d like to see it. He said he sees
the University pass through different phases
through time.
“I tend to think we are bouncing ndq?
between acceptance and really wanting mi
norities,” he said.
I lie official fall enrollment of TexasM
is 42,524 students with black studa
comprising 3 percent (1,220)
Hispanics comprising 8 percent(3,591,
"I tend to think we are bouncingnowt
tween acceptance and really wanting
norities," said Hugh I. McElroy Jr., as»
ate director of human resources and Cl:
of'71.
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Continued
1963 —The year female students became official
mittee, its p
Little by little through the years women gained recognition as full-time student! "tF 11
By Stephanie Pattillo
The Battalion
Although women were not offi
cially allowed to attend Texas A&M
University for the school’s first 87
years, they have greatly influenced
the history of the University since
A&M’s beginning.
The college’s general policies ini
tially prohibited women from at
tending classes. However, through
the years, administrators made ex
ceptions to that policy. As early as
1895, the first female attended class
es at Texas A&M.
Soon after, the bitter debate of
co-education at Texas A&M began.
A headline above a story about Ber
nice Carter, A&M’s first female
cadet in the October 7, 1915 issue
of Bryan’s The Weekly Eagle read
“Strange ‘fish’ have at last invaded
our sacred abode”.
It was not until 1925 that the,
first woman received a degree from
Texas A&M.
Mary Evelyn Crawford, sister of
an engineering professor, entered
A&M in 1921 and attended both
regular and summer sessions. She
was granted a degree in English in
the summer of 1925; however, ac
cording to the Feb. 16, 1925, issue
of The Battalion, she was not per
mitted to receive a diploma at sum
mer commencement.
“I got a call from the registrar’s
secretary',” Crav/ford said. “She told
me to come over to her apartment
and get my diploma.
“I was so glad to hear that I did
get a diploma, I would have crawle4
over to that apartment.”
Women were officially allowed
to enter A&M only after the diffi
cult economic times of the De
pression forced the necessity of
daughters and wives of professors
to enroll as students.
On Sept. 27, 1933 the Board
of Directors, by emergency decree,
opened the tne doors of Texas
A&M College to women to com
pensate faculty members for their
salary reduction during the De
pression.
Eleven women took advantage of
the ruling, the first of its kind, that
permitted enrollment of daughters
of all college employees residing in
Brazos County.
But several women, ineligible
for admission under the terms of
the Board ruling, also applied at
this time and were refused admis
sion. This sparked the first of
many lawsuits against the College
on grounds of discrimination.
This first case, like many others,
was dismissed, and the judge in
the case determined the Board
held complete authority in the
matter of admitting students.
According to the newspaper in
the late 1950s, the subject of
women at A&M became a touchy'
issue. Although The Battalion edi
torialized in support of coeducation
Cort
of Cadets and
in 1958, the t ^oros
the Association of Former Students
violently opposed coeducation.
In the same year, John M. Bar
ron, Bryan district attorney, re
sumed the legal battle that had lain
dormant ever since the the 1933 co
education lawsuit denied by a Bryan
district judge.
“My situation went back to the
Depression in 1933 when my nieces
and cousins couldn’t get an educa
tion, and the school was there with
plenty of room available,” Barron
said in 1966. “Under those circum
stances, I feel the all-male policy was
arbitrary' exclusion.”
Barron won the lawsuit for his
female clients on March 26, 1958,
but a Waco court of civil appeals re
versed the lower court decision on
October 2. The case reached the
U.S. Supreme Court in April, 1959,
and the high court refused to con
sider the appeal by a one-vote mar
gin. Barron then immediately filed
a new lawsuit on Nov. 5, 1959. Af
ter losing his suit again, Barron’s ap
peal swiftly passed through state ap
pellate courts and the U.S. Supreme
Court again refused to reconsider
the case.
Like the courts, some of the stu
dents had mixed reactions to the
idea of women at this all-male
school. In an Oct. 3, 1957 opinion
poll in The Battalion, Sydney
Heaton, a freshman math major.
said, “Co-education would make
A&M just like any other cookie
pushing school. It would ruin us!”
But, Charles Sinclair, a senior
Corps member, said, “More boys
will come to A&M because of the
girls, and of course, the girls
themselves would help increase
the enrollment.”
After a bitter battle in the Texas
Legislature and in the courts, the
Board of Directors announced their
decision to allow women at Texas
A&M on April 27, 1963.
The Board ruling, which became
effective June 1, 1963, stated all
qualified women would be admitted
to the graduate program and that
the wives of students in residence
and women staff members could
register for undergraduate programs.
The announcement stated that
women would be admitted on a
day'-student basis only, that is, no on
campus housing was available for
women.
On April 27, 1963, The Battal
ion reported, “The student body,
most of whom were away when the
decision was made public, were un
happy. While feelings among civil
ians were mixed, the Corps of
Cadets were furious. More than
4,000 students booed President Earl
Rudder when he told them there
was no possibility of repealing the
new policy.”
Even a few of the women who
were at A&M at the time were not
fully' supportive of the decision to
go coed at A&M.
According to the May 3, 1963 is
sue of The Battalion, Carolyn Adair,
who worked for the college person
nel office and whose husband was a
graduate student in physics at the
time, said, “I side with the boys. I
hate to see a lot of tradition ruined.
But as long as it has been passed I’m
going to take advantage of it.”
And that is just what she did.
Adair, who is currently director
of student activities, came to Texas
A&M in the summer of 1962 with
her husband. When she graduated
from high school, she said she want
ed to come to Texas A&M, but it
was all male. When she first came
to A&M, she said women only had
secretarial positions.
“I wanted to come to A&M, but
I felt it was good to have an all-male
option for some people just like
some schools were all-female,” she
said. “I didn’t want to be the one to
spoil the tradition. But once it
opened up for women, I was glad to
participate.”
Adair said she felt like part of the
student body even though she was
the only female in her classes.
“Although it never happen to me,
I heard stories from other women
about having doors slammed in
their faces and lewd things said to
them in the classroom,” she said.
Dr. Sallie Sheppard, associate
provost, graduated from A&M in
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1965. She went to high school
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tend A&M for its math progn
After her first year at the Univec
of Texas, she transferred to A&M
Like Adair, she said she did;
receive hostile treatment front
males in her classes.
“In terms of being a stude®
was always well treated,” shesii was t F, e bq
“The fellows in the class were
dial and made me feel partol
group.”
Dr. Betty Unterberg
of history and first full proressort)
pointed at Texas A&M, camera
University in September 1968,
“I had no women in myclas5&
she said. “At that time, the Coif managing e
was very strong.” Altermar
“Students were a litde shocked;
see a woman professor,”
“On the first day of class,
they thought I was the secret^
coming to tell them their profess
couldnt make it to class.”
She said she has never faced
discipline problem in her years®
teaching at Texas A&M andsd 1
her students have always been
spectful.
Although respectful ontheoot
side, deep down, many of the® 1
ditionalists at A&M had a dil
cult adjustment as women ini
trated their “all-male citadel,” 1 ;
cording to reports in The
ion at that time.
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HAPPY 100 th ANNIVERSARY
<Sr Fl^
Lee McCabe
Manager ’92
Jerry Joyner
Owner '53
1851 Briarcrest Dr.
Bryan
(409) 774-4633
2414B S. Texas Ave.
College Station
(409) 696-0467
ajojoLj <E9~fnnujET±aTu
to
THE BATTALION
for a century of service.
From:
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The Battalion
for 100 years publications
to the A&M Community
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