By Joe Vitale
Fordham University in the 1930s was not unlike many other colleges and universities at the time.
No black students were in attendance at Rose Hill, and the prospect of diversifying the student body was the concern of few.
This nearly changed when Fordham received an application from Hudson J. Oliver, a Harlem resident and graduate of Xavier High School in Manhattan. Oliver’s father was a distinguished physician in the metropolitan area, and he was a three-season athlete in high school.
Still, his accomplishments at his Jesuit high school did little to impress the admission staff of the university, according to Fr. Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., in Fordham: A History and Memoir.
Though Oliver had competitive grades compared to his peers, he was not admitted, and no reason was given.
“The trustees had made a decision,” said an employee of the registrar when Oliver tried to sign up for classes.
The rejection, which appeared to be based on the color of Oliver’s skin, would have remained quiet if it were not for Fr. John LaFarge, S.J.
LaFarge was the founder of the Catholic Interracial Council in 1934 and was editor of America at the time. Angered by the decision not to accept Oliver on the basis of his skin, he appealed to the New York Provincial, Fr. Edward Phillips, S.J.
Threatening to expose Fordham for its decision, LaFarge arranged a meeting between the provincial and Oliver’s parents, who believed that if he attended a city college, Oliver would lose his faith.
“I want a Catholic education all the way through,” Oliver Jr. told his parents, “and none of that secular stuff.”
Under pressure from LaFarge, St Peter’s College in Jersey City accepted Oliver, though LaFarge remained adamant in pushing Fordham in the direction of progress.
Claiming the reason was sheer bigotry, he pegged the blame on the university president Fr. Aloysius J. Hogan, S.J. and Dean Fr. Charles Deane, S.J.
Schroth suggests it has to do with keeping them safe from communist propaganda. However, despite LaFarge’s urgency, his perseverance let up: He “concluded that there was nothing to do but pray and wait for a change in Fordham’s administration.”
The incident became somewhat of a hot issue on campus.
In February 1939 — almost five years after his son was denied entry into the university — Dr. Oliver spoke at Fordham and addressed racism on college campuses.
In that same month, The Ram published an editorial expressing its support for integration on campus.
On Feb. 24, 1939, the newspaper’s editorial board suggested that the senior class turn over the profits from Senior Week to “the University authorities for the tuition of a worthy Catholic Negro student.”
The editorial, titled “The Eighth Day of March” (the date of Senior Week) suggested there was no reasons for a black student not to be offered a scholarship.
In addition, the writers appeared to be calling out those on campus who “observe much and do little.” Those same people, the board suggested, “should be ready to back up its abstract professions with concrete action.” A scholarship funded by seniors, they said, could be a solution.
The proposal was eventually voted down, Schroth noted, with one argument being that a black student would be likely to bring a date to the senior prom as a student.
Nearly seven years later, a report in Woodstock Letters revealed the slow progress being made by Jesuit schools. A total of 26 Jesuit high schools had just 20 black students out of 23,494 students. Out of 21 colleges, there were close to 450 students out of 82,000; 150 were at Fordham while Georgetown continued to hold out.
Using yearbook pictures as a guide, Schroth found that Fordham’s first enrolled black student was Matthew Adams, a pre-med student who graduated in 1947.
Still, the sluggish advancements had not escaped LaFarge.
In 1944, he returned to the topic in a letter to Fr. Maher.
Considering methods of opposing communism, he suggested that American Jesuits should be more eager to integrate black students in their schools.
In his letter, he cited one success story whom LaFarge said “has made an excellent record in both studies and in conduct,” at St. Peter’s College.
The student to whom he was referring appeared to be Oliver, who enrolled in St. Peter’s in 1934 after being rejected from Fordham.
However, Scroth notes, Oliver had hardly made an excellent record in studies: He had trouble graduating and left school after five years, still lacking one course needed for graduation.
Oliver earned credit for a biology summer course and graduated. His progress after graduation, however, was not recorded.
Regardless of Oliver’s success as a student, his application to Fordham symbolized a shift in how Jesuit educators viewed integration in the classroom.
Writing in 1941, Fr. Robert I. Ganon, a notable theologian who studied the intersection of homosexuality in relation to Christianity and the Bible, considered the consequences of not diversifying the student body. “Discrimination,” he wrote, “is always bloodless but cruel persecution.”
With the Second World War on his mind, his reason for integration was as theological as it was practical. “In times of national crisis,” he wrote, “to deny our fellow citizens jobs that are suited to their abilities because of race, color, creed or national extraction is criminally stupid.”
