8Results for "June 13, 1939"
Stories
Princeton’s Fugitive Slaves
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Princeton residents published at least 28 newspaper advertisements for runaway slaves between 1774 and 1818. Each tells a unique story of courage and resistance in the face of tremendous odds.
James Collins Johnson: The Princeton Fugitive Slave
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James Collins Johnson, a fugitive slave freed after an 1843 trial in Princeton, became a prominent figure in town and on campus over the course of his many decades working at the College of New Jersey.
Integrating Princeton University: Robert Joseph Rivers
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Robert Joseph Rivers (Class of 1953) was one of Princeton’s first Black undergraduate students and one of the first two Black members of the Board of Trustees. While in town and on campus, Rivers witnessed firsthand Princeton’s legacy of privileging the comfort of white southern students over racial justice.
Bruce Wright’s Exclusion from Princeton University
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Bruce Wright, future member of the New York Supreme Court, was accepted into Princeton in the mid-1930s. His offer of admission was revoked when he arrived on campus and administrators learned that he was African American.
Erased Pasts and Altered Legacies: Princeton’s First African American Students
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In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, several African American men attended Princeton as graduate students. Princeton president Woodrow Wilson’s administration may have attempted to erase their presence from institutional memory, creating an inaccurate historical justification for excluding black students from the university.
Primary Sources
Letter from Radcliffe Heermance to Bruce Wright
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Dean of Admissions Radcliffe Heermance's letter to African American student Bruce Wright, whose admission to Princeton was revoked on account of his race.