Letter from James P. Baxter, III, President of Williams College, October 1951

Letter from James P. Baxter, III, President of Williams College, October 1951

Baxter, James P., III

1951-10-03

College students, black

Faculty, black

A letter from James P. Baxter, President of Williams College, in response to Walter A. Groves' inquiry into racial policy at Williams. At the time Williams had no black faculty members, but did have multiple black graduates who had gone on to succeed in the field of education. There were no restrictions, to Baxter's knowledge, against hiring a black faculty member. He ends noting Williams had extended offers of admission to three black students the previous year, one of whom had instead gone to West Point and the other to Harvard.

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WILLIAMS COLLEGE
WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

October 3, 1951

President Walter A. Groves,
Centre College of Kentucky,
Danville, Kentucky.

Dear President Groves:

In reply to your letter of September 25th, Williams College has no Negro member on its faculty though there is no restriction in our laws or in our thinking that would prevent Williams from appointing a Negro to the faculty if we thought him the best man for the Job. We have never had, to my knowledge, a Negro on the faculty though we have had a number of Williams Negro graduates who have done well in the field of education. The College is open to Negro students but has few applicants and has only one here at present. We went letters of admission to three last year, one of whom accepted an appointment at West Point instead and another went to Harvard where he was offered a larger scholarship.

Sincerely yours,

James P Baxter 3rd

Paper

Baxter, James P. III

Groves, Walter A.

Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts