Current Changes in Negro Higher Education to Meet the Immediate War Emergency

Immediately after Pearl Harbor became the dominant tone in most American colleges and universities in their effort to in winning the Colleges for Negroes joined in this acceleration movement which had the blessings of the American Council on Education, the United States Office of Education Wartime Commission, the Baltimore Conference of College and University Presidents and many state and local educational bodies. Sufficient time has now passed to permit a cooling off from the original rush toward acceleration and perhaps a partial check on its scope. It is clear that the colleges and universities realized that grave responsibilities rested upon them as a result of the war and lost little time in adjusting their programs to do their part in meeting war demands. This paper is concerned with current changes in senior colleges for Negroes which have been introduced to meet some of the immediate demands of the war. For a factual statement concerning these changes 75 of a total of approximately 109 colleges and universities which are operated for Negroes, were asked to submit evidences of their wartime programs. Forty-five representative institutions responded with usable data and these will serve as the supporting contribution of this paper. No effort will be made herein to evaluate the work and war efforts of the contributing institutions and the summarizing statistics of this paper should be generously interpreted. An impartial review of the wartime programs of the 45 institutions as submitted would suggest under rather than over statements of their efforts to aid the war emergency. The difficulties of participation on the part of some institutions in the wartime effort of educational acceleration are acknowledged but not discussed. In addition, the scope of institutional changes is indicative of widening war services in keeping with the increasing demands of the national emergency

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