September 11, 2013
USC community reflects on anniversary of desegregation Amanda Coyne
ACOYNE@DAILYGAMECOCK.COM
n Sept. 11, 1963, there were no riots. There were no federal marshals. There was no fight from the state government. Three new African-American students walked down the steps of the Osborne Administration Building, the first to do so since Reconstruction. It happened only three months after Alabama Gov. George Wallace attempted to physically block African-American students from entering the Universit y of A labama and less than a year after white students at the University of Mississippi erupted into a deadly riot stemming from the enrollment of its first African-American student. Henrie Monteith, James Solomon Jr. and Robert A nderson quietly desegregated the University of South Carolina. But the calm of the event was carefully calculated.
1960s
WHERE WE’VE BEEN “USC and Clemson did not want to see themselves as other southern universities saw themselves,” said Valinda Littlefield, director of African-American studies and co-chair of USC’s Desegregation Committee. “The university orchestrated this calmness. There were certainly people who were not happy about it.” The three students, especially Anderson, were often harassed by their white peers, and a cross was burned in the yard of Monteith’s aunt and
2013 (Above) Courtesy of University Archives, (Below) Brian Almond / THE DAILY GAMECOCK
In the early 1960s, only white students learned in USC’s classrooms. Now, classes consist of students from many racial and ethnic backgrounds.
ANNIVERSARY • 2
STUDENT POPULATION: 1973-2012* Black student enrollment
Systemwide enrollment
Total enrollment
Source: University Archives, Institutional Assessment and Compliance *University records before 1973 are inconsistent, so are not included in this graphic.
Year Kristmar Muldrow / THE DAILY GAMECOCK