Browse Exhibits (19 total)

This exhibit illustrates the tension between how African-American University Staff members were recognized between 1914 and 1932. This exhibit explores how racism was articulated at the University through photographs, student literature, student news articles, and community publications.

With a focus on African-American staff members, the exhibit demonstrates how their representation (Featured Staff) and lack of representaton (Unnamed Staff) explain the variety of ways racism at the University manifested itself over the years.

Throughout our research in the Virginia Baptist Historical Society archives, we came across an image in the 1915 yearbook captioned, "Dark Side of College Life." The photo shows nearly a dozen unidentified African-Americans on the University of Richmond's campus.

This photo raised questions in our study about the ways in which African-American staff members were represented, remembered, and acknowledged by students and administration at the University of Richmond. The fact that they were pictured could demonstrate appreciation of their work because they were made visible through the photographs in the yearbook. In contrast, the staff members are unnamed, their titles unlisted. Their position could be interpreted from their dress, but where they belong at the University is unknown. There are, however, two exceptions: Esau Brooks and John Johnson, whose service to the University was recognized and at times commemorated in school publications.

When thinking back to "Dark Side of College Life," we began to question how the contributions of African-American staff members were both silenced and praised. When looking at this in the context of the racial dynamics of the City of Richmond, we realized that African-American staff members at the University of Richmond were often silenced regardless of the impact they had on student life. Having seen the ways in which the representations of John Johnson and Esau Brooks contrast with photos like "Dark Side of College Life" in which staff were unnamed, unrecognized, and silenced, we realized that racism at the University of Richmond was complex; racism manifested itself in the representations of both the recognized and unnamed staff members.

Despite the stark differences between these two presentations of staff at the University, we do not intend to suggest that racism works in a light and dark binary, but rather that racism operates in complex ways. Depsite the fact that staff members from 1914-1932 were made visible in University publications, many were still nameless and only identified by their role as laborers. 

In its 2019 edition, The Princeton Review ranked the University of Richmond as the ninth most segregated campus in the nation. One space on campus where this segregation is most palpable remains the Heilman Dining Center, the University’s centralized dining hall. Focusing on the history of dining services on campus, this exhibit explores the factors that led to the current forms of segregation at the dining hall. The first page, consisting of items spanning from 1917 to 1958, show that racism at the dining halls on campus took root long before the admittance of the first residential Black students at the University of Richmond in 1968. The second page showcases how the outright racism and segregationist policies of the first page morphed over time into forms of implicit social segregation, reflecting what political sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva terms “new racism." Other elements of the dining hall that indicate new racism are the physical layout, food and decorations of the Heilman Dining Center. All of these elements, although not necessarily intentional, have a potential role in making minority students feel uncomfortable or unwelcome while dining on campus to this day. A few of these varied student experiences and opinions conclude the second page.

While this exhibit is not meant to diminish any efforts to combat the Heilman Dining Center's (and the University's) segregation problem, it does intend to openly address the segregation that existed explicitly in the past and persists implicitly today, segregation that is all too often unspoken, ignored or denied. The following pages, guided by a close analysis of items from the University of Richmond’s student newspaper the Collegian and correspondances , reveal a narrative that helps to answer the question: how has the social act of sharing and distributing food intentionally excluded and alienated people from marginalized communities?

Who was George Modlin? 

George Matthews Modlin was the fourth president of the University of Richmond (1946-1971). During his tenure, the University’s annual budget increased exponentially; investment in construction of new buildings rose to 24 million. Among these new buildings were the Law School and Boatwright Memorial Library. By the time Modlin left office in 1971, the student body had grown from about 2,300 to 7,000, making the University the largest private institution of higher education in Virginia.

Modlin earned his doctorate from Princeton University where he eventually taught economics. When he came to the University of Richmond, he served as an Economics Professor and the dean of the Evening School of Business Administration until 1946. He then took on the role of president and the chairman of the Economics department. After Modlin stepped down from this role, he served as a chancellor for fifteen more years. Beyond his duties at the University, he was also involved with organizations within the Richmond area and abroad. Modlin served as the president of the following organizations: Member Richmond Chamber of Commerce, Southern University Conference, Southern Association Baptist Schools and Colleges, and Association of Virginia Colleges. 

What is his archive? 

The University of Richmond accepted its first black student to University College on Lombardy Avenue, an alternative site for "day campus" course offerings, in 1964 and integrated the main campus four years later in 1968. Up to this point, President Modlin corresponded with many different individuals and organizations such as the Association of American Law Schools, various Baptist-affiliated organizations, University alumni, leaders of other institutions of higher education, and University of Richmond students themselves. It is in this folder, titled "Segregation Matters," that one can see what exactly led up to the integration of the University of the Richmond through the lens of its president himself.

How does this exhibit use the archive? 

This exhibit utilizes the sources found in George Modlin’s collection of documents regarding segregation from his time as president at the University of Richmond. Through a close reading of the correspondence in this collection, a narrative of social power at the University of Richmond begins to unfold. This exhibit hopes to give texture to the narrative of desegregation on the University of Richmond’s campus. Rather than leave the story of integration as a natural social progression from segregated student life to desegregated student life, the documents in the segregation folder of Modlin’s archive indicate the pressure placed on University of Richmond’s administration in the 1950s and ‘60s to change policy. Letters from alumni, Baptist organizations (Baptist Churches and Baptist-Affiliated Universities), and the American Association of Law Schools indicate that outside pressure from constituents with social, political, and economic power may have created push factors for policy change. This exhibit will look at some of the factions that wrote to Modlin about the issue of segregation at the University of Richmond and will examine the arguments made regarding maintaining or dismantling policies on segregation.  

What sources does this exhibit bring together? 

This exhibit brings together many documents that reveal the alumni in support of desegregation.While looking into the George Modlin documents we did not find much information about the people who supported segregation, but we are aware that there were tensions on both sides. Because of this, we recognize the limitations of our research being that we are mainly seeing resistance to segregation. As a result, we are unable to see how passionate some alumni were to keep the University segregated.

Background

The University of Richmond has a deep connection to the Civil War, that extends from being located in Richmond, which was considered the Capital of the Confederacy. This exhibit is focused on repeated episodes of nostalgia for the Old South. The University began in 1830 as a Baptist Seminary. During the Civil War, the college ceased operation, as a majority of the faculty and students fought in the war for the Confederate Army. The school was in disarray after the war, as the Union Army occupied the campus, a fifth of the faculty and students had been killed in the war, and the University was bankrupt. Due to the donations of the Virginia Baptist Society and other members of the community, Richmond was able to re-establish itself after the Civil War in 1866.

Lost Cause Ideology 

The concept of Lost Cause Ideology is important to the understanding of this exhibit. Lost Cause Ideology was created after the Civil War in an attempt for Confederates and their descendants to shape the memory of the conflict, in a way that celebrate white souther heroism. Therefore, the focus was brought on creating the narrative that the Civil War was due to an economic need for secession, without focusing on the cornerstone of that labor, slavery. Part of the Lost Cause was also creating an image of the enslaved, as obedient, and happy to do the labor they were forced into.

This exhibit examines the ways that music can help us to understand the attitudes surrounding race and racism held not only by students but also faculty members at the University of Richmond between 1932 and 1938. To begin, this exhibit discusses choral teacher Charles Troxell and his influence on the Richmond College Glee Club over many years in service as director. The next section of our exhibit zeroes in on the performances of the University’s all-white, male Richmond College Glee Club by pinpointing the problematic inclusion of minstrelsy and Negro spirituals in their various performances. Lastly, we further our research by examining campus policy surrounding what genres of music students were permitted and prohibited to play. By looking at performances showcased by white students as well as the restrictive policy of musical genres put in place by white faculty members, this exhibit endeavors to add a new narrative to the larger Race & Racism initiative. Through an examination of select primary source documents, we find white dominance asserted through the types of music that the students were allowed to engage in versus the genres of music that the University restricted through policy, thus constructing students’ views and experiences with African Americans. 

Sources Used:

This exhibit draws on articles from the University of Richmond's school newspaper, The Collegian, and the school literary magazine, The Messenger, to provide insight into what students believed was important to write about during this period. This exhibit also utilizes online, non-University sources to provide more historical context regarding how minstrel shows, Negro spirituals, and policy generally existed in society and popular culture during this time. By looking at University sources as well as outside sources, this exhibit can shed light on, and expand upon, the relationship between race and music, and the way that attitudes around race and racism were constructed through permission of problematic musical performances and restriction of certain music genres.