Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T22:54:47.996Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

THE DEMISE OF INTEGRATION

Competition, Diffusion, and Ethnographic Expertise in the Emergent Field of Higher Education, 1865–1915

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2016

Christi M. Smith*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Oberlin College
*
*Corresponding author: Christi M. Smith, Department of Sociology, Oberlin College, 305 King Hall, 10 N. Professor Street, Oberlin, Ohio 44074. E-mail: csmith3@oberlin.edu

Abstract

Racial integration has been a tenet of educational equity for over fifty years. Despite this, U.S. higher education presents staggering rates of segregation. Strikingly, there is little scholarship to answer the question of how integrated colleges segregated? I interrogate the process of segregation over a fifty-year period through a comparative historical analysis of the broader field of higher education and case studies of three nineteenth-century colleges. Through analysis of independently collected archival materials, I show that local-level organization of racial contact fails to account for the success or failure of racial integration in schools. Instead, I show that the interaction between colleges—and the emergence of a competitive field of higher education—undermined even successfully integrated campuses. Mesolevel practices are important for revealing how organizational actors implement rationalized cultural ideas as well as how local-level ideas are negotiated in a situated field. The growth of intercollegiate college competition differentiated not only particular types of education but also consecrated groups of people. Further, this reveals the production of cultural meanings around race as a differentiation strategy in response to interorganizational competition.

Type
State of the Art
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

39th U.S. Congress Joint Committee on Reconstruction (1866). June. 20. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Allport, Gordon W. (1954). The Nature of Prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.Google Scholar
American Missionary Association Collection. Annual Reports of the American Missionary Association, 1847–1915. Amistad Research Center at Tulane University. New Orleans, Louisiana.Google Scholar
Anderson, James D. (1988). The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935 . Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Barrows, Mary (1904). John Henry Barrows: A Memoir. New York: Fleming H. Revell Company.Google Scholar
Baumann, Roland (2010). Constructing Black Education at Oberlin College: A Documentary History. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Beisel, Nicola (1997). Imperiled Innocents: Anthony Comstock and Family Reproduction in Victorian America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Berea College Archives (BCA) (1865-1915). Annual Reports of Faculty and Officers to Trustees. Berea College Special Collections and Archives. Berea, Kentucky.Google Scholar
Binder, Amy (2007). For Love and Money: One Organization’s Creative and Multiple Responses to a New Funding Environment. Theory and Society, 36(6): 547–71.Google Scholar
Billings, Dwight, and Blee, Kathleen (2000). The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bobo, Lawrence (2013). The Antinomies of Racial Change. DuBois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 10(1): 15.Google Scholar
Bonacich, Edna (1972). A Theory of Ethnic Antagonism: The Split Labor Market. American Sociological Review, 37(5): 547559.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1989). The State Nobility: Elite Schools in the Field of Power. Oxford, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Carnevale, Anthony, and Strohl, Jeff (2013). Separate & Unequal: How Higher Education Reinforces the Intergenerational Reproduction of White Racial Privilege. Policy Paper, Georgetown Public Policy Institute Center on Education and the Workforce.Google Scholar
Carter, Prudence (2006). Straddling Boundaries: Identity, Culture and School. Sociology of Education, 79(3): 304328.Google Scholar
Carter, Prudence (2012). Stubborn Roots: Race, Culture and Inequality in U.S. and South African Schools. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Chicago Daily Tribune (1865a). Education Follows the Flag. April 3, 2.Google Scholar
Chicago Daily Tribune (1865b). Education – Public Schools. May 20, 2.Google Scholar
Chicago Daily Tribune (1865c). Commencement Week at Oberlin. The Social Problem Solved. August 29, 3.Google Scholar
Chicago Daily Tribune (1891). The Cost of an Education. October 25, 4.Google Scholar
Chicago Daily Tribune (1899). The Scarcity of Great Men. January 17, 3. Google Scholar
Churchill, C. (1870). The Independent. Howard University. February 10, 2.Google Scholar
Civil Rights Act of 1875 (1875). 18 Stat. 335.Google Scholar
Darby, Derrick, and Saatcioglu, Argun (2014). Race, Justice, and Desegregation. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 11: 87108.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul (1982). Cultural Entrepreneurship in Nineteenth-Century Boston: The Creation of an Organizational Base for High Culture in America. Media, Culture and Society, 4: 3350.Google Scholar
DuBois, W. E. B. (1910). The College-Bred Negro American. Atlanta, GA: Atlanta University Press.Google Scholar
DuBois, W. E. B. ([1935]1992). Black Reconstruction: An Essay toward a History of the Part which Black Folk Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Fairchild, James H. (1871). Oberlin: Its Origin, Progress and Results. An Address, Prepared for the Alumni of Oberlin College, Assembled August 22, 1860. Oberlin, OH: R. Butler, Printer, News Office.Google Scholar
Fairchild, Edward H. (1875). Berea College, Kentucky: An Interesting History. Cincinnati, OH: Elm Street Printing.Google Scholar
Friends’ Review: A Religious, Literary, and Miscellaneous Journal (1868). Article 5. August 22, 827.Google Scholar
Frost, W. G. (1899). Our Contemporary Ancestors in the Southern Mountains. The Atlantic Monthly, 83(497): 311320.Google Scholar
Frost, W. G. (1901). Hints from the Mailbag. New York Times. January 19, BR13.Google Scholar
Frost, W. G. (1910). Record Group 21. Oberlin College Archives.Google Scholar
Gerteis, Joseph (2007). Class and the Color Line: Interracial Class Coalition in the Knights of Labor and the Populist Movement. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano (2002). Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Glenn, Evelyn Nakano (2011). Constructing Citizenship: Exclusion, Subordination and Resistance. American Sociological Review, 76(1): 124.Google Scholar
Goldberg, Chad Alan (2007). Citizens and Paupers: Relief, Rights and Race, from the Freedmen’s Bureau to Workfare. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Goldsmith, Pat António (2004). Schools’ Role in Shaping Race Relations: Evidence on Friendliness and Conflict. Social Problems, 51(4): 587612.Google Scholar
Gordon, John (1904) Inaugural Address of the Rev. John Gordon, March 30. Reference Files, Howard University Archives.Google Scholar
Hahn, Steven (1990). Class and State in Postemancipation Societies: Southern Planters in Comparative Perspective. The American Historical Review, 95(1): 7598.Google Scholar
Hahn, Steven (2003). A Nation Under our Feet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, John (1893). The Mountain Whites of the South. Pittsburgh, PA: J. McMillin Publishing.Google Scholar
Haley, James (1895). Afro-American Encyclopedia; Or…Every Subject of Interest to the Colored People, as Discussed by More Than One Hundred of Their Wisest and Best Men and Women. Nashville, TN: Haley & Florida.Google Scholar
Hallett, Tim (2010). The Myth Incarnate: Recoupling Processes, Turmoil, and Inhabited Institutions in an Urban Elementary School. American Sociological Review, 75(1): 5274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harper’s Weekly Collection at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture. College of Charleston. Charleston, South Carolina.Google Scholar
Harper’s Weekly (1871). Editorial. December 20, 30.Google Scholar
Hartford Courant (1889). Oberlin College: A Sketch by a Student. July 9.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Jennifer, and Powell, Brenna (2008). Racial Reorganization and the United States Census 1850–1930: Mulattoes, Half-Breeds, Mixed Parentage, Hindoos, and the Mexican Race. Studies in American Political Development, 22(1): 5996.Google Scholar
Hogan, Richard (2011). Resisting Redemption: The Republican Vote in 1876 Georgia. Social Science History, 35(2): 133166.Google Scholar
Holt, Thomas C. (1977). Black over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina During Reconstruction. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois.Google Scholar
Howard, Oliver Otis (1868). Education of the Colored Man. Speech. O. O. Howard Papers, Box 43, Bowdoin College Archives.Google Scholar
Howardiana Collection. Howard University Archives. Washington, D.C.Google Scholar
Hsu, Carolyn (2006). Market Ventures, Moral Logics, and Ambiguity: Crafting A New Organizational Form in Post-Socialist China. Sociological Quarterly, 47(1): 6992.Google Scholar
Jackson-Coppin, Fanny (1913). Reminiscences of School-Life and Hints on Teaching. Philadelphia, PA: AME Book Concern.Google Scholar
Johnson, Cathryn, Dowd, Timothy, and Ridgeway, Cecilia (2006). Legitimacy as a Social Process. Annual Review of Sociology, 32: 5378.Google Scholar
Johnson, Victoria (2007). What is Organizational Imprinting? Cultural Entrepreneurship in the Founding of the Paris Opera. American Journal of Sociology, 113(1): 97127.Google Scholar
Jones, George M., and Harkness, Luther D. (Eds.) (1909). General Catalogue of Oberlin College, 1833–1908. Cleveland, OH: O. S. Hubbell Printing. <https://books.google.com/books?id=_cbQGCgUbJMC&dq=1908+College+Catalogue+oberlin&source=gbs_navlinks_s> (accessed October 17, 2016).Google Scholar
Karabel, Jerome (2005). The Chosen: The Hidden History of the Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.Google Scholar
Katznelson, Ira, and Weir, Margaret (1988). Schooling for All: Class, Race, and the Decline of the Democratic Ideal. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lainier-Vos, Dan (2013). Sinews of the Nation: Constructing Irish and Zionist Bonds in the United States. Malden, MA: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Lamb, Daniel (1900). Howard University Medical Department, Washington, D.C.: A Historical Biographical and Statistical Souvenir. Washington, DC: Howard University Medical Department.Google Scholar
Logan, Rayford (1969). Howard University: The First Hundred Years: 1867–1967. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Logan, John, Oakley, Deidre, and Stowell, Jacob (2008). School Segregation in Metropolitan Regions, 1970–2000: The Impacts of Policy Choices on Public Education. American Journal of Sociology, 113(6): 16111644.Google Scholar
MacClintock, S. (1901). The Kentucky Mountains and Their Feuds. American Journal of Sociology, 7(1):128.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas, Charles, Camille, Lundy, Garvey, and Fisher, Mary (2003). Source of the River: The Social Origins of Freshmen at America’s Selective Colleges and Universities. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, John (1977). The Effects of Education as an Institution. American Journal of Sociology, 83: 5577.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., Ramirez, Francisco O., John Frank, David, and Schofer, Evan (2007). Higher Education as an Institution. In Gumport, P. (Ed.), Sociology of Higher Education, pp. 187221. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Minkoff, Debra (2002). The Emergence of Hybrid Organizations: Combining Identity-Based Service Provision and Political Action. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 31(3): 377401 Google Scholar
Moody, James (2001). Race, School Integration, and Friendship Segregation in America. American Journal of Sociology, 107(3): 679716.Google Scholar
New York Evangelist (1879). Howard University. February 27, 2.Google Scholar
New York Times (1867). Gen. Howard and the Howard University. August 26, 4.Google Scholar
New York Times (1873). Colleges in the United States. December 8, 5.Google Scholar
New York Times (1900). Study of Race Problems. March 13, 7.Google Scholar
New York Tribune (1900). Oberlin College: Election of Seven New Trustees. March 17, 14.Google Scholar
Oberlin College Archives (OCA): College General (RG:0) and Office of Admissions Records (RG:25).Google Scholar
Olzak, Susan, and Shanahan, Suzanne (2003). Racial Policy and Racial Conflict in the Urban United States, 1869–1924. Social Forces, 82: 481517.Google Scholar
Orfield, Gary (2001). Schools More Separate: Consequences of a Decade of Resegregation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Civil Rights Project.Google Scholar
Paschel, Tianna (2010). The Right to Difference: Explaining Colombia’s Shift from Color-Blindness to the Law of Black Communities. American Journal of Sociology, 116(3): 729769.Google Scholar
Reardon, S. F., Grewal, E., Kalogrides, D., and Greenberg, E. (2012). Brown Fades: The End of Court Ordered School Desegregation and the Resegregation of American Public Schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31(4): 876904.Google Scholar
Reuben, Julie (1996). The Making of the Modern University. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC). General Education Board: An Account of its Activities, 1902–1914. General Education Board Collection. Sleepy Hollow, New York.Google Scholar
Rojas, Fabio (2007). From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Ruef, Martin, and Fletcher, Benjamin (2003). Legacies of American Slavery: Status Attainment among Southern Blacks Following Emancipation. Social Forces, 82(2): 445480.Google Scholar
Saperstein, Aliya, Penner, Andrew, and Light, Ryan (2013). Racial Formation in Perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 39: 359378.Google Scholar
Schofer, Evan, and Meyer, John (2005). The Worldwide Expansion of Higher Education in the Twentieth Century. American Sociological Review, 70(6): 898920.Google Scholar
Schudson, Michael (1978). Discovering The News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Shumway, A., and Brower, C. (1883). Oberliniana. A Jubilee Volume of Semi-Historical Anecdotes Connected with the Past and Present of Oberlin College, 1833–1883. Cleveland, OH: Home Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda, and Somers, Margaret (1980). The Uses of Comparative History in Macrosocial Inquiry. Comparative Studies in Society and History, 22(2): 174197.Google Scholar
Skocpol, Theda (1992). Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Alfred, and Walton, Francis (1901). The Spectator. New Outlook, 69(15): 968971.Google Scholar
Smith, Christi M. (2016a). Reparation and Reconciliation: The Rise and Fall of Integrated Higher Education. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Christi M. (2016b). From Vice to Virtue: Racial Boundaries and Redemption Narratives in Late 19th Century Appalachian Feuds. Race and Justice, 6(2): 146169.Google Scholar
Snyder, Tomas, Ed (1993). 120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait. National Center for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education.Google Scholar
Somers, Margaret (2008). Genealogies of Citizenship: Markets, Statelessness, and the Right to Have Rights. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stevens, Mitchell, Armstrong, E., and Arum, R. (2008). Sieve, Incubator, Temple, Hub: Empirical and Theoretical Advances in the Sociology of Higher Education. Annual Review of Sociology, 34: 127151.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. L. (1965). Social Structure and Organizations. In March, J. G. (Ed.), Handbook of Organizations, pp. 142193. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally & Co.Google Scholar
Stryker, Robin (1996). Beyond History vs. Theory: Strategic Narrative and Sociological Explanation. Sociological Methods and Research, 24: 304352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinmetz, George (2008). The Colonial State as a Social Field. American Sociological Review, 73(4): 589612.Google Scholar
Thelin, John (2004). A History of American Higher Education. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
The Independent (1884). Article 6. July 3, 18.Google Scholar
The Second Morrill Act of 1890 . ch. 841, 26 Stat. 417, 7 U.S.C. 322 et seq. (August 30, 1890).Google Scholar
Titcomb, Caldwell (1993). The Black Presence at Harvard: An Overview. In Sollors, Werner, Titcomb, Caldwell, Underwood, Thomas A., and Kennedy, Randall (Eds.), Blacks at Harvard: A Documentary History of African American Experiences at Harvard and Radcliffe, pp. 19. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Tyson, Karolyn (2011). Integration Interrupted: Tracking, Black Students, and Acting White After Brown. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
U.S Bureau of Census (1975). Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970.Google Scholar
U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774–1875. A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation. Senate Journal. December 5, 1865. <http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(sj0584))> (accessed January 12, 2010).+(accessed+January+12,+2010).>Google Scholar
Washington Post (1884). The Negroes’ Harvard. April 14, 4.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1894). Colored Law Graduates. May 29, 4.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1896). Colored Students Studying Sociology. November 15, 12.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1905a). Hissed by Students. December 9, 2.Google Scholar
Washington Post (1905b). Justice for Howard University. Dec 29, 1905, 6.Google Scholar
Watkins, William (2001). The White of Black Education: Ideology and Power in America, 1865– 1954. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max ([1922] 1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wray, Matt (2006). Not Quite White: White Trash and the Boundaries of Whiteness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Zion’s Herald (1875). Educational. October 14, 327.Google Scholar