Crimson White Editorials on Integration
Introduction
The evolving conversation about desegregating college campuses, particularly in the South, played out in the University of Alabama student newspaper, the Crimson White, which debuted in 1894. It was a weekly newspaper for almost 100 years, including at the time of these articles. It is editorially independent.
All of the editors in chief whose issues are covered here, without exception, were Southerners, from Alabama or one of its adjoining neighbors. (Names from the masthead were cross-referenced with the campus directory, which lists each student's hometown.) Though some were clearly more politically progressive than others, none were regional outsiders. They were, of course, all white, at least two of them Jewish. Two were women, the rest men.