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“So Reason Can Rule”

About this project

“So Reason Can Rule” is an oral history project documenting the racial integration of St. John’s College. It includes a number of publications, events and exhibitions. Please check back for further updates.

For the fall of 2011, the project will include:

• Exhibition in the Nutt Room of the Greenfield Library (August 17-December 16, 2011)
• Conversation with audio/video presentation in the Conversation Room
  September 24th at 4:00 p.m.
  Download the reading for the discussion, W. E. B. Du Bois’ “Of the Training of Black Men” from Souls of Black Folk (pdf),
  or see the full work here: www.racematters.org/thesoulsofblackfolk.htm

So Reason Can Rule: The Necessity of Racial Integration at St. John’s College

Racial segregation in education was the norm throughout the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. St. John’s College was not an exception. Though there was no official policy barring African Americans from attending, the college had actively discouraged African-American males from applying, citing the racial segregation practiced in Annapolis as the reason.

In the early forties, a small group of students who were disturbed by the racial segregation they witnessed in Annapolis and the U.S. military, and were inspired by the belief that the “New Program” at St. John’s should be accessible to all qualified males, they initiated discussions with the larger St. John’s community about the need to admit an African American as a student. The outcome of the discussions was a community consensus among the students, the faculty, and the administration that St. John’s College should admit students of any race or color to the college.

Though the Board of Visitors & Governors resisted the idea of admitting a “Negro” to the college, the St. Johnnies remained committed to the idea that right reason and not prejudice should guide the practices of St. John’s. They worked to recruit a qualified African‐American male candidate. They found one in Martin Dyer of Baltimore.

In the fall of 1948, Mr. Dyer broke the color line at St. John’s College of Annapolis and was received as an equal on campus. It would fall to those who came after Mr. Dyer to break the color line in the city of Annapolis.

This exhibition made possible, in part, by a grant from Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County and the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority.