The State Historical Society of Missouri is partnering with Missouri University of Science & Technology to host an in-person and virtual lecture series about desegregation in higher education.
The series kicked off Tuesday with an opening reception at the Curtis Laws Wilson Library in Rolla, and will host lectures on Oct. 14, 21 and 28.
Hosted in honor of the 75th anniversary of desegregation in higher education, Missouri S&T was home to some of the first Black students integrated in a Missouri university in 1950.
"Our two students, George Everett Horne and Elmer Bell Jr., were the very first Black students in one of the public universities in Missouri," Missouri S&T archivist Debra Griffith said. "Since it was those two people who came here and it's the 75th anniversary, we decided this was a good time to honor them."
Horne and Bell enrolled following a lawsuit filed in 1950. When they enrolled, the Rolla community was still segregated and was home to only 42 Black residents. Both transferred after their first semester at Missouri S&T to the University of Missouri, where there was a larger Black population.
Gary Kremer, executive director of the State Historical Society of Missouri, will host the first lecture on Oct. 14. His lecture will focus on the challenges faced in the fight for desegregation of Missouri public schools after the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education. From this case, the court ruled that separating children in public schools based on race was unconstitutional. Kremer's discussion will include insight into the white and Black resistance to desegregation.
The next lecture, hosted on Oct. 21 by Larry Gragg, covers the process of desegregation at Mizzou and Missouri S&T from 1950-63. Gragg, the Missouri S&T university historian, plans to cover the efforts that played a role in the integration of Black students into the culture at both universities.
Horne and Bell were joined by Gus Ridgel in filing the 1950 lawsuit that allowed Black students to attend universities other than historically Black colleges or universities. However, the road for desegregation at Mizzou started 12 years earlier with Lloyd Gaines.
Gaines, a prospective law student, filed a lawsuit for admission to Mizzou's law school in 1938. One of Missouri's HBCUs, Lincoln University, did not have a law program. In the 12 years that followed, multiple lawsuits, from Gaines and other students, were filed to grant admission to Black students with no success.
The 1950 lawsuit filed by Horne, Bell and Ridgel through the NAACP was the final piece to the puzzle and allowed Black students to enroll at MU if Lincoln University did not have their preferred major.
Four years later, the decision from Brown v. Board of Education cemented desegregation in the American school system.
The series' final lecture will be hosted by Harvest Collier, Missouri S&T's first African American faculty member. Collier, hired by Missouri S&T in 1982 as an assistant professor of chemistry, went on to serve as vice provost of undergraduate studies before retiring in 2012. Collier will provide his insight on faculty desegregation at Missouri S&T and his experiences as a STEM student, research scientist and professor from over three decades with the university.
When looking at the importance of the history of desegregation, Griffith said she emphasizes remembering it.
"It's important because we tend to think now that Black students were always allowed to go to public universities, and that isn't true," Griffith said. "People have forgotten that history, that this is a fairly recent development."
Each lecture will be hosted in-person at the Curtis Laws Wilson Library in Rolla and virtually over Zoom from 5:30-6:30 p.m. The registration link for Zoom can be found at shsmo.org/calendar.