By Colter Hettich, Features Editor
In November 1945, an Optimist staff member wrote a column, titled Colored Should Have Rights, But.., explaining how segregation has the best interests of both blacks and whites at heart.
“I am not opposed to Negroes coming to ACC if ACC is equipped to care for them,” the student wrote, warning that integration would drive students away and remove any opportunity for the university to “teach against prejudice.”
The Optimist printed a response to the column that sparked a 15-year debate – a debate that eventually would open the door for two, young black students.
Of all Church of Christ universities established before WWII, only Pepperdine in California was fully integrated by 1960. That year Floyd Rose, a young black man who desired to preach in the Churches of Christ, applied for admission to ACC and was rejected. He then applied for admission at McMurry College, and was accepted.
The publicity from Rose’s story prompted then President Don H. Morris and board chairman B Sherrod to commission a committee of faculty members to study the issue. On May 29, 1961, slightly longer than a month after Dr. Carl Spain’s rousing condemnation of racist Christianity at Lectureship, the committee recommended to the Board of Trustees that ACU accept any graduate school applicant who met the requirements for admission.
In the fall of 1962, Billy Curl and Larry Bonner transferred to ACC as juniors and the first African-American undergrads to attend the university. In 1962, ACC did not accept black freshmen or sophomores.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” Curl said. “I was on a mission just to get an education.”
Curl faced more than his share of discrimination. He remembers a student raising his hand to inform the class he was uncomfortable sitting next to him. Some professors made it more difficult for him than other students to pass their courses. Once, the police picked him up because he was off campus.
“I was used to going to church with people who didn’t want me there,” Curl said. “I knew there were going to be people who didn’t like me.”
Despite the best efforts of some – and thanks to the efforts of others – no one kept Curl from graduating and paving the way for generations of black Wildcats. In the fall of 1965, after ACU fully integrated, enrollment increased from 500 to 3,000.
“The people who really helped me the most never spoke to me, never befriended me,” Curl said. “They watched out for me behind-the-scenes.”
Curl pursued his dream of ministering to the people of Africa after leaving ACC. He is in Ethiopia for 10 days and will return in December for a follow-up visit.
