Bob Jones University Apologizes for the Racist Past
Bob Jones University, the Bible university in Greenville, sc, would not acknowledge black colored pupils until the 1970s. Then, for a period that is 30-year interracial relationship had been forbidden. Now the college has established that its polices had been wrong.
Lost in the news that is spectacular of this election of a black guy as president for the united states of america is another event — this time around in advanced schooling — that appears as a milestone in racial progress. Within an statement that is eloquent Stephen Jones, great-grandson for the creator and also the 4th president of Bob Jones University, has apologized for the institution’s racist past.
President Jones claimed, “For very nearly two hundreds of years Christianity that is american BJU with its initial phases, had been seen as an the segregationist ethos of US tradition. Consequently, for way too very very long, we permitted institutional policies regarding battle to be shaped more straight by that ethos than because of the maxims and precepts of this Scriptures. We conformed to your tradition as opposed to provide a definite christian counterpoint to it.
“by doing this, we didn’t accurately express god and also to match the commandment to love other people as ourselves. Of these problems we have been profoundly sorry. Though no understood antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism for a individual degree have actually ever been tolerated on our campus, we permitted institutional policies to keep in position that have been racially hurtful.”
By means of back ground to the remarkable announcement let’s review the racial reputation for Bob Jones University.
The founder that is university’s Bob Jones, had been a fundamentalist evangelist whom thought that the idea of evolution ended up being an abomination. He called the pope the anti-Christ and dismissed Catholicism as being a “Satanic counterfeit.” He when stated, “I would personally instead experience a saloon on every part than the usual Catholic within the White House.”
Jones Sr. ended up being for the view that twentieth-century blacks should always be grateful to whites for bringing their ancestors to the country as slaves. If this hadn’t occurred, Jones penned in 1960,“they might still there be over when you look at the jungles of Africa, unconverted.” Integrationists, based on Jones, had been wrongfully wanting to eliminate boundaries that are natural Jesus himself had founded.
With the aid of rich supporters, Bob Jones founded a college near Panama City, Florida, in 1926. Bibb Graves, who’d simply been elected governor of Alabama aided by the formal backing regarding the Ku Klux Klan, offered the keynote target during the groundbreaking ceremony. Whenever classes started in 1927, admission of pupils ended up being formally limited to people of the white battle, a policy that persisted until 1971.
Experiencing Depression-related financial hardships in 1933, Bob Jones had been forced to sell the Florida land and go their university to Cleveland, Tennessee. In 1936 a new billy graham joined this new Bob Jones university in Tennessee. But he quickly became disenchanted along with its strict doctrine that is religious social policies and used in Florida Bible Institute. In 1947 Bob Jones College moved yet again, this time around to its site that is present in, sc. Now financially seem, the school started initially to provide master’s and degrees that are doctoral assumed the designation of the college.
Whenever Bob Jones Jr., the son of this creator, became the institution’s president, he continued the institution’s policies of rabid bigotry. During their tenure he bestowed degrees that are honorary George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Lester Maddox. Whenever Pope Paul VI passed away in 1978, Bob Jones Jr. called him the “archpriest of Satan, a deceiver, in which he has, like Judas, attended their very own spot.”
Whenever Bob Jones III assumed the presidency regarding the organization in 1971, male pupils had been needed to wear coats and ties to classes. Females had been obliged to put on dresses or skirts. Rock music ended up being forbidden on campus. Pupils had been forbidden from going to movies. Pupils are not permitted to be on off-campus times with out a chaperone. On campus, the university maintained two “dating parlors” where pupils could fulfill to talk. Touching wasn’t permitted and kissing ended up being strictly prohibited regardless if the few had been engaged to be hitched. Male and female pupils had been maybe maybe not allowed to talk with each other after 7 p.m. The campus had been separated through the town of Greenville by an iron and barbed-wire fence.
Under authorities force, Bob Jones University finally exposed its doorways to unmarried black colored pupils. But strict laws had been founded because of the college to prevent dating that is interracial. In 1976, throughout the management of Gerald Ford, the insurance policy on interracial relationship led to the Internal income Service’s revoking the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University retroactive to 1970. The IRS demanded the repayment of $490,000 in straight back taxes. The college appealed the ruling. Ultimately, in 1981, the Supreme Court regarding the usa heard the way it is. The newest Reagan management initially supported the positioning for the university but, after having a general public outcry, switched edges. In 1983 the Supreme Court ruled against Bob Jones University and only the IRS by a vote of 8 to 1. The dissenter that is lone belated Chief Justice regarding the united states of america William Rehnquist.* On being encouraged for the choice associated with Court, Bob Jones III ordered that the flags that are american campus be flown at half-staff.
A public relations spokesman for the university, explained the school’s prohibition against interracial dating: “God has separated people for his own purposes in 1998 Jonathan Pait. He’s erected barriers between the countries, not merely land and ocean obstacles, but in addition ethnic, social, and language obstacles. Jesus has made individuals distinct from each other and intends those distinctions to stay. Bob Jones University is in opposition to intermarriage associated with the events as it stops working the barriers Jesus has built.”
In 2000 the college finished its prohibition that is official against relationship. Now eight years later on, the university has admitted that its policies had been incorrect.
This modification of heart at Bob Jones University comes regarding the heels of current very good news about black colored enrollments during the nation’s other Bible universities. JBHE’s database reveals that in 1997 there have been just nine Bible colleges where blacks composed 10 % or higher of total enrollments. Today you will find 29 schools that are such.
*William Rehnquist had an extended reputation for opposition to the development of blacks. He opposed the 1954 Supreme latin mexican cupid Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education so that as A gop that is young pollwatcher Arizona, Rehnquist ended up being active in challenging black voters’ skills.
To get more regarding the racism of Rehnquist, see “The Racial Views regarding the Chief Justice regarding the usa,” JBHE, quantity 23, Spring 1999, p. 72.