Eastern Mennonite University

Eastern Mennonite University one of first integrated colleges in the South

Ada Webb at Eastern Mennonite in 1949.

Eastern Mennonite University was one of, if not the first, accredited college in the former Confederate states to admit African American undergraduate students in the era of racial discrimination before Brown v. Board of Education. Eastern Mennonite College (now University) admitted its first black student, Willis Johnson, in 1948. Ada Louise Webb, pictured at right, was admitted the following spring. In the spring of 1950, Marjorie Thompson became the first African American to live in the EMC dormitory.1

The first black graduate of Eastern Mennonite College was Peggy Webb, who earned a degree in education in 1954. This was the year of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown versus Board of Education decision, which said that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”2

In the same year that EMC admitted its first black student, University of Arkansas officials announced they would admit black graduate students. The state did not have a law school for blacks at the time, and needed to provided such opportunities under the law. Law student Silas Hunt was the first to enroll and attend classes. He was initially required to study in a special room, in classes in which he was the only student.3 After Hunt’s early death, Jackie L. Shropshire became the law school’s first African-American graduate in 19514. Black undergraduates in Arkansas were still refused admission until 1954 and did not live in integrated dormitories until 19643.

Berea College in Kentucky was established as an integrated college in the 1850s, but was forced by state law to stop admitting blacks in 1904. It began re-admitting black students in the 1950s when the law was amended to allow integration at the college level.1

1 "Checkered Past, Colorful Present: EMU Leads Way to Diversity." Crossroads Spring 2007.

2 Ibid.

3 "The University of Arkansas Black Experience"

4 "University of Arkansas School of Law" The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.