The prevailing sentiment in the 1950s, recalls Secretary of the Faculty John B. Fox Jr. '59, was "quite a strong view that it was unethical to inquire or reveal race."

"The New England conscience was that you dealt with `prejudice' by not stating it," he says.

A 1956 Crimson article, written as part of a larger series tackling the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education school segregation decision, perhaps typifies the racial attitudes of the times. The article, headlined "Only Individual Bias Exists at Harvard," concluded that, "all in all, Harvard's admissions policy for Negroes is an non-discriminatory as the University itself is to Negroes studying here."

"The Negro has the opportunity if he can--and wants to--take it," the article remarked, to explain why only 35 black students enrolled in the College that year.

THE WATERSHED

The pre-Civil Rights era did not completely ignore the problem of race, and the University can boast pioneering deans of admissions John U. Monro '34 and Wilbur J. Bender '27, who recognized the importance of extending opportunity to all.

But administrators now say that it was the Kennedy Administration, the Great Society and consciousness-raising of the 1960s that brought the issue of race to the forefront. The Harvard admissions office responded full steam ahead, changing its recruiting strategies "almost overnight," according to Fox.

"Selective admissions," once a euphemism for racial discrimination, now meant the admissions committee could spend time and money on the vigorous solicitation of potential minority applicants.

The 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. awakened white America as a whole--and Harvard in particular--to racial inequality. While Harvard President Nathan M. Pusey '28 led a service honoring King inside Memorial Church, about 80 black students stood outside in protest, one reportedly saying, "We don't want their tears--we want black people to have a place at Harvard."

Harvard responded with not only the creation of an Afro-American Studies concentration later that year, but also through a completely revamped admissions plan.

"Most of what we are talking about happened beginning in the '69 to '70 year," remembers senior admissions officer David L. Evans, who joined the staff that year. "Before that, there were some African Americans, but very few--starting the fall of 1968, there was a major recruiting effort."

"New England kind of woke up to the fact that not judging anything wasn't going to work," Fox remembers.

Not all, however, thought that the political fervor of the time brought with it wise choices. "There was an enormous desire to increase the number of black students, and there were some students who we did not do any kindness by admitting," Fox says.

Evans remembers the period as a time of emotion and "political give and take."

"We were feeling our way. We were learning, and we're the better off for having tried," he says.