FANNIE LITTLETON KLINE

When Caroline Preston Davis applied to the University in 1892 the faculty agreed to allow women to register as special students. They could not attend classes but were tutored privately by the professors. Examinations were administered separately from the men's. Those who passed examinations at the end of the year were issued certificates of proficiency, not degrees. Fannie Littleton Kline was one of the first women to attend the University of Virginia, beginning work with Chemistry professor John William Mallet in 1893. Half a century later she recalled her experiences in a letter to Dean of Women Roberta Hollingsworth, on display. Photograph of Dean of Women Roberta Hollingsworth Gwathmey. No date.

Typed letter, signed. Fannie Littleton Kline to Dean of Women Roberta Hollingsworth. 1942 April 3. J. W. Mallet. Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on General Chemistry. Charlottesville: Geo. W. Oliver, 1890.

WOMEN OF MATURITY, ABILITY AND ADEQUATE PREPARATION

Few women took advantage of the special tutoring allowed by the faculty in the 1890s and prejudice against their matriculation remained strong. For thirty years, many prominent Virginia women called for equal education for women--either through the establishment of a coordinate college or through equal admission to the University. Finally on January 12, 1920, the Rector and Visitors voted to admit women of "maturity, ability and adequate preparation" as candidates for graduate, professional and vocational degrees. The women admitted quickly formed their own traditions. Informal weekly teas were probably the most popular and well known. Less well known was the refusal to enter the Grounds through Memorial Arch because of its inscription "Enter by this Gateway and seek the Way of Honor, the Light of Truth, the Will to Work for Men." It was not until 1970 that women were allowed to matriculate as undergraduates at the University.

"Educational Opportunities for Women in the University of Virginia." [1920]. "The University of Virginia in Women's Education." [1923].

MARY COOKE BRANCH MUNFORD

Photograph of University of Virginia Board of Visitors, including Mary Cooke Branch Munford, taken at the appointment of John Lloyd Newcomb as second president of the University of Virginia. 1933.

For decades Mrs. Mary Cooke Branch Munford labored tirelessly for either equal admission of women to the University or the establishment of a coordinate college near the University. In 1913 she wrote to Dean of the College James M. Page arguing that "it might be a good thing to push the campaign for the Woman's College, and have a bill prepared committing the State to the founding of this College," adding, "I feel certain that if the way can be prepared by you, with such cooperation as we women and those already interested can give you, we shall have a very good chance of having this College founded by the next Legislature." The bill did not pass but Munford and other advocates of equal education for women did not give up. In 1944 Mary Washington became the coordinate college of the University of Virginia. Mrs. Munford herself became the third woman to serve on the Board of Visitors, holding that post from 1926 until her death in 1938. Typed carbon copy letter, signed. Mary Cooke Branch Munford to Dean of the College James M. Page. 1913 April 25.

EDWARD NATHANIEL CALISCH

The names of the earliest Jewish students at the University are unknown. The Oberdorfer twins of Charlottesville, Archie (later a physician) and Leo (later an attorney), enrolled as day students in the late 1890s, commuting by trolley from their home at Fry's Springs. By the turn of the twentieth century, students from the Northeast were enrolling in significant numbers and the number of Jewish students, especially from New York, was growing. Virginia had a reputation for being less anti-Semitic than other major universities and by the late 1920s, 8.5% of the student population was Jewish. In 1901 Richmond Rabbi Edward N. Calisch enrolled at the University, commuting to Charlottesville three days a week while continuing to serve his Beth Ahabah congregation. He joined the Washington Literary Society, the debating team and was a charter member of both the Raven Society and the University's Phi Beta Kappa chapter. In 1903 his essay entitled "Jefferson's Religion" was published in the Memorial Edition of The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Five years later he earned a doctoral degree for The Jew in English Literature as Author and as Subject (title page). This was followed by works on the teaching of Jewish and Biblical history. Rabbi Calisch returned to the University in 1936 to give the baccalaureate address in which he declared, "We have lost the things of the spirit. We have become a nation of materialists living in a mechanical universe. Utility has become our God and technology is his high priest."

Photograph of Edward N. Calisch. No date. Edward N. Calisch. Galley proof of "Jefferson's Religion." 1903. Edward N. Calisch. The Jew in English Literature as Author and as Subject. Richmond, Va.: Bell Book and Stationery Co.: 1909 (cover).

ALICE JACKSON

In 1935, Alice Jackson, the daughter of an African-American druggist in Richmond, applied for admission to the graduate school. Her application was routed to the Board of Visitors who resolved that the "education of white and colored persons in the same schools is contrary to long-established and fixed policy of the commonwealth of Virginia," and "for other good and sufficient reasons." Dean John C. Metcalf then denied admission. In a spirited reply Jackson questioned the term "good and sufficient reasons." The N.A.A.C.P. considered filing suit at this point but did not do so.

Autograph letter, signed. Alice Jackson to the Rector and Board of Visitors. 1935 September 28. Typed letter, signed. N.A.A.C.P. Secretary Walter White to James Hardy Dillard, educator and supporter of civil rights. 1935 September 27.

ECHOLS AND PARKER POLLS

In 1948, James R. Echols, a graduate sociology student, polled 300 randomly selected graduate, medical, and law school students on their reaction to the admission of African Americans to their ranks. Results were tabulated by school, religion, region, and sex of the respondent. Of the 229 responses, 133 stated they were in favor of or indifferent to the admission of African Americans. A more detailed breakdown showed Jews, Roman Catholics, non-Southerners and women more ready to accept African Americans. The majority still felt t hat admission in large numbers would cause problems and few stated a willingness to go out of their way to welcome African-American students. Two years later, C. Lee Parker, another graduate sociology student, again polled fellow graduate students with nearly identical questions. This time 73% of the respondents had no objections or were indifferent and 30 of the 79 "No" voters qualified their negative responses to some extent. "No" voter comments included: "God segregated the races;" "Yankees [should] mind their own____business;" and "stirring up this hard feeling between races may be just what the Communist and Roman Catholic groups in the nation want in order...to seize political power." "Yes" voters responded with: "if Jefferson were living today he would approve;" "it [segregation] is the most hypocritical thing I have ever seen," "I consider racial segregation to be nonsense in theory, vicious in practice;" and "racial segregation is holding back the nation politically and the south economically."

Ruth S. Taliaferro's response to the C. Lee Parker poll on the admission of African Americans to the University of Virginia. 1950. Most of the responses were anonymous. James R. Echols. Typed document listing the results of his poll on the admission of African Americans to the graduate schools. 1948 April 22.

GREGORY SWANSON AND WALTER N. RIDLEY
Photograph of Gregory Swanson. 1950.	Photograph of Walter N. Ridley. 1953.
In 1950, Gregory Swanson, a Howard University graduate and practicing lawyer, applied to take graduate courses in the Law School. The law faculty met, found him qualified, and unanimously voted to admit. Dean F.D.G. Ribble forwarded the Law School resolution to President Darden who requested legal opinions from both Ribble and the State Attorney General J. Lindsay Almond. Ribble replied that he had "no doubt but that the Court would hold the Virginia segregation statutes invalid...." Almond advised that "refusal to admit...cannot be successfully defended in court." Nevertheless, the Board of Visitors denied his application. Swanson appealed the case before the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, won, and enrolled. By that time, the School of Education had already quietly admitted Walter N. Ridley to its graduate program. Swanson left the University after a few months. Ridley stayed and earned his doctorate, the first African American to receive a University of Virginia degree.

JOHN CHARLES THOMAS

John Charles Thomas, future Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, was one of twelve blacks out of 1400 enrolling students in September of 1968. He graduated with distinction in 1972 and received his degree from the law school in 1975. In 1992 he returned to give the commencement address and urged the new graduates to become part of the reformation of America just as Jefferson had been a leader in the formation of America. In a survey of Lawn residents filled out in 1995, Thomas recalled outstanding teachers Kenneth Elzinga, John Graham, and Norman Graebner; rigorous course work for which he was initially unprepared; issues he cared about such as getting more books by black authors in the Library versus the social and fraternity concerns of most students; and his deep feelings for a "University that really did not want me to be there back in 1968 but which I call my own anyway."

John Charles Thomas. Lawn Resident Survey. 1995 December 21.

CLINCH VALLEY COLLEGE

For one hundred years University faculty and administrators remained indifferent or hostile to the extension of educational programs beyond the grounds in Charlottesville. In 1912 a few faculty agreed to lecture outside the area. A director of extensions services was appointed and the first credit course offered in 1919. The Extension Division, under George B. Zehmer, reached out to every area of the state in the 1930s and 1940s offering class work, extracurricular programs and home-study courses. Nowhere was the need greater than in remote and poverty-stricken southwest Virginia where a tiny extension branch was unable to meet the demand for post high-school education. A group of determined citizens, with the enthusiastic support of University President Colgate W. Darden, campaigned in the Virginia General Assembly for funding and were granted an appropriation of $5000. Local businesses, clubs, and stores more than doubled the amount. Wise County transferred the land previously occupied by a local poor farm for $1.00. The first students, men and women, enrolled in September 1954. Clinch Valley became a four-year college in 1968 and awarded its first baccalaureate degrees two years later. In 1998 the decision was made to formally rename the college the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Photograph of Clinch Valley College at opening day ceremonies. 1954. Photograph of the first faculty. 1954. Thirty five out of the first 109 students and one-third of the first faculty were women. (Courtesy of University of Virginia's College at Wise.)

JOSEPH C. SMIDDY

The remarkable Joseph C. Smiddy, coal miner's son, musician, scholar and humanitarian, joined the first faculty at Clinch Valley as professor of biology. Two years later he was appointed dean, and eventually became chancellor. As teacher, administrator, and self-proclaimed "voice crying in the wilderness," he kept the college going through its lean early years, sometimes by wit alone. On one occasion he saved the first dormitory by assuring the University of Virginia provost that it would be used to house students from broken homes. Smiddy's unerring instinct for doing the right thing was never more evident than the day an excited secretary rushed into his office exclaiming "Mr. Smiddy, what should we do? There's a woman in the registration line with skin as black as it can be." Without looking up, Smiddy asked, "What color is her money?" A few moments later Clinch Valley College was integrated, years before its parent institution admitted African Americans as undergraduates.

Photograph of Joseph C. Smiddy, Clinch Valley chancellor and leader of the Reedy Creek Boys bluegrass quartet. No date. (Courtesy of University of Virginia's College at Wise.)

COLGATE W. DARDEN

Telegram from "undersigned voters and taxpayers of Virginia" to Colgate Darden. 1958 February 4. Typed carbon copy letter. Colgate W. Darden, Jr. to J. C. Smiddy. 1958 February 20.

Clinch Valley College always had a ready supporter in University of Virginia President Colgate W. Darden who escaped his Charlottesville office as often as he could to travel there, donning old clothes to putter around the construction sites and promising Dean Joe Smiddy that he would obtain help from his in-laws "in the paint business" (the duPont family). In 1958 several hundred "voters and tax payers" in the Clinch Valley area telegraphed Darden asking his support for additional funding in the General Assembly. Smiddy then sent him an estimate of costs for an academic building, suggesting that the funds for the construction be sought from the Governor's Contingency Fund with furnishings provided locally. Darden replied to Smiddy that he would personally fund one-third of the cost of a $15,000 overage if the Governor would grant the other two-thirds.