October 10, 1957
Southern White Smithies clash with guest speaker Dr. Buell G. Gallagher on integration
On Thursday, October 10th Dr. Buell G. Gallagher gave a talk titled “Fiction Fact and Faith in Race Relations” as 1957’s Billings speaker. He called out the North as having a long way to go in the way of civil rights, and praised recent gains, like the 1954 ruling that allowed black children to attend NYC public schools. He identified segregated housing as the primary cause of America’s bad race relations, and went on to declare that no racial group had a higher I.Q., and that it was the fear of black students’ intellectual capabilities given the right opportunities that kept white people from supporting the desegregation of schools. His talk did not sit well with some of Smith’s southern students, whose opinions were published in a Sophian article published October 15th. Vicky Kelly of New Orleans stated “I have seen the poverty and ignorance they [black people] live in and do not believe they are ready to be equals.” Shirley Fleischer of Mississippi bemoaned the outnumbering of black children to whites by a margin of 3 to 1 in some areas, and that “Naturally, the ultimate fear is intermarriage.”
Gallagher Criticizes U.S. Housing Pattern, Students Dispute Speaker On Segregation (1, missing second page)
[Last updated on October 8, 2018]