The Acceptance of African Americans at Georgia Tech

In most places in the US, African Americans have had to fight for equal rights and acceptance throughout their history. Georgia Tech is no exception. While Tech has always had more accepting viewpoints than many of the other schools in the southeast United States, African Americans have had to fight a long and hard battle for their equality, even within our own borders.

Starting as early as the last 1940s, there was talk of possibly allowing Black students to attend Georgia Tech. Every year, Black students applied with hopes that things would change and they would be allowed in for the inaugural class of a diversified Georgia Tech. In 1961, three students got their wish. African-American students Ford Greene, Ralph Long Jr., and Lawrence Williams became the first three Blacks to attend Georgia Tech. Their picture is shown on the left side of my blog, acknowledging them for their incredible achievement in breaking racial boundaries.

At most schools, this "intrusion" of African Americans would've incited riots among the students. Really it's fairly miraculous that little resistance to the idea was put up by Georgia Tech students. But the reason for this relatively easy assimilation had nothing to do with Tech having enlightened students, or anything to that degree. According to a 1948 Technique article, in a poll, less than 25% of Tech students fully supported the newly formed Democratic plank suggesting equality among races. This was higher than the 21.85% of all Southerners that supported it, but still shows a clear hesitance of mid-20th century Tech students in accepting African American students as their peers and equals. In fact almost the entire success of the assimilation could be credited to, not the students, but the Georgia Tech president of the 50s and early 60s, President Harrison.

President Harrison was a very heavy supporter of integration at Georgia Tech, and he was certainly not a man to be taken lightly. Throughout the 50s, he gave a series of inspirational, but steel minded speeches about the future acceptance of Blacks at Tech, forcing an easy integration even before the school's racial boundaries were officially destroyed. Students were told over and over again that protest of any kind against against the diversification of Georgia Tech would NOT be tolerated. This dedication to a righteous cause by a very noble individual is probably the greatest reason that the integration of African Americans at Tech was so successful. In fact, Georgia Tech became the first school in the southeast to integrate without any form of government mandate-- a very impressive feat.

From here, further steps were made to increasingly integrate Tech. In Tech's younger days, there was a silent rule that only White performers could perform on campus. Before the integration, this was never seen as a problem. But when the rule was broken that Tech would be an all-White campus, pressure was instilled to eliminate other of its groundless and racist cornerstones. With much support from Tech's new Black community, a concert appearance made by none other than Ray Charles managed to break this rule in 1963, and to set new grounds for the future of acceptance at Tech.

With these new standards of acceptance and a bright future, things continued to improve. Over the next 40 something years, more and more programs were established to protect the rights of Blacks at Georgia Tech. In 1968, the Georgia Tech Afro American Association (GT triple A) was established to give Blacks on campus an organization to call their own. In 1975, the Minority Introduction To Engineering (MITE) was established. These new establishments showed some real progress in the long ensuing fight for equality.

Certain individuals also helped strengthen the Black presence at Georgia Tech. From faculty members to organizational leaders, to athletes and even writers for the Technique, people have done incredible things to improve African American life at Tech. More about one of these people in particular, quarterback Eddie McAshan, will be discussed in my next blog.

Works Cited

Campaign Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization. Web. 20 Nov. 2010. <http://www.development.gatech.edu/assets/GTBAOcasestatement.pdf>.

"Civil Rights Plank Draws Fire." SmartTech. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. <http://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/33526/1948-07-23_31_49.pdf?sequence=1>.

"GT | Vice President for Institute Diversity: 50th Anniversary of the Matriculation of Black Students at Georgia Tech - Timeline." Welcome | Vice President for Institute Diversity. Web. 20 Nov. 2010. <http://www.diversity.gatech.edu/50thAnniversary/timeline>.