A celebration of 75 years of Roosevelt University

1940s

The Equality Experiment

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April 17, 1945


 
When Roosevelt College was founded in 1945, segregation dominated higher education. Many private universities limited the number of Jewish, Catholic and black students they accepted. To screen out “undesirable” applicants, they required photos, personal interviews or the names of all four grandparents on applications.
 
One exception was the Central YMCA College in Chicago. The school enrolled a diverse group of 2,240 men and women and called itself “liberal in spirit.” By the 1940s, however, college president Edward Sparling began to clash with the Y over admissions quotas and discrimination.
 
When the board told Sparling to prepare a racial and religious census of the student body, he refused, saying, “We don’t count that way.” The board demanded Sparling’s resignation and, in April 1945, 62 faculty members resigned with him in a historic walkout. Students also voted 448 to 2 in favor of separation.
 
Sparling and his supporters planned a new school — initially called Thomas Jefferson College — that would offer admission and equal rights to any qualified student. President Franklin Roosevelt had died on April 12 and two weeks later the school was renamed Roosevelt College.
 
At a time when most American professors were white male Protestants, Roosevelt assembled one of the most diverse faculties in the country. About 1,200 students began classes at Roosevelt College in September 1945. The next year, Roosevelt acquired the famed Auditorium Building on Michigan Avenue. Five thousand students, from military veterans to new high school graduates, registered for classes in the fall of 1947.
 
An act of courage had created, as one journalist wrote, “a model of democracy in higher education.”

Edward J. Sparling

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Founder, First University President | 1945–63

Edward Sparling served as president of the Central YMCA College from 1936 to 1945. He came increasingly into conflict with the college board over discrimination. He formally resigned on April 24, 1945 to create Roosevelt College.

Sparling was a champion for academic freedom and equal access to education. At Roosevelt, he ensured that faculty members were represented on the new Board of Trustees and led the acquisition of the Auditorium Theatre.

Other founding faculty members included political scientist Tarini Prasad Sinha, economist Abba Lerner, philosopher Estelle De Lacy, language professor Dalai Brenes and chemist Edward Chandler.

Marshall Field III

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Advisory Board Member, Trustee | 1945–56

Marshall Field

In April 1945, Roosevelt College had no funding beyond $10 put up by Edward Sparling for the incorporation fee. Chicago investment banker Marshall Field III agreed to cover the first faculty payroll that fall. Over the next five years, the Marshall Field Foundation donated $175,000 — more than $1.8 million in today’s dollars — to support the mission of the fledgling school. Other early supporters included the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, labor unions and grassroots donors.

Marjorie Keenleyside

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First Head Librarian | 1945–66

Marjorie Keenleyside

Marjorie Keenleyside walked out of the Central YMCA College with Sparling and started the Roosevelt library from scratch. In its first semester, the library had two orange crates, a folding table, a chair and a typewriter for furniture. “Our folding chairs squeak, but they hold our students,” she said. “Our tables are nothing but sawed-off clothing racks, but they provide writing space.” Keenleyside added 48,000 volumes to Roosevelt’s collection by 1949.

Eleanor Roosevelt

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Advisory Board Chair, Advisor | 1946–62

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt visited the University often in its early years. She spoke at Roosevelt College in November 1945, when the school was dedicated in honor of her husband, and returned in 1959 when the University was rededicated to honor both Roosevelts. In her syndicated newspaper column “My Day,” she wrote the following about the University:

“Here is an experiment in education for democracy where 1,400 students representing a number of foreign countries, as well as many racial and religious backgrounds, are enthusiastically at work. I met the faculty, which is as varied as the student body. But teachers and students alike are dedicated to a search for knowledge and truth through knowledge.”

John Gibbs St. Clair Drake

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Professor of Sociology and Anthropology | 1946–68

JOHN GIBBS ST. CLAIR DRAKE

St. Clair Drake was an activist anthropologist who studied urban communities and race relations. His groundbreaking book Black Metropolis offered a comprehensive portrait of the lives of African Americans on Chicago’s South Side.

With professors Frank Untermyer and Lorenzo Dow Turner, Drake developed one of the first African studies programs in the United States. He also advised the first prime minister of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, and trained Peace Corps volunteers. He is the namesake of Roosevelt’s St. Clair Drake Center for African and African American Studies.

Frank Untermyer

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Professor of Political Science and African Studies | 1946–82

Frank Untermyer

Frank Untermyer taught at universities in Ghana and Tanzania and helped found Roosevelt’s African Studies program. With his own money, he quietly gave academic scholarships to many of his students. After his retirement, Untermyer returned to Roosevelt almost every day for another decade, working with students in one-on-one seminars.

“[He] motivated me to reach for a larger view of the world and encouraged me to always be willing to learn,” wrote Paul Roemhild, a student in Untermyer’s famous American Constitutional Law class. “He is still an inspiration to me, all these years later.”

Edwin Turner

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First Athletics Director | 1948–81

Ed Turner founded the Roosevelt athletics department and personally coached basketball, bowling, soccer, softball, track, tennis and golf. He also taught a physical education class. At the time, he was the only black coach of an integrated college basketball team in the country. “I don’t put any limit on doing things. That’s my philosophy in life,” Turner told New York Times sportswriter Ira Berkow, who played for Roosevelt in the 1950s.

During her 100th birthday celebration, Ed’s wife and University librarian Gladys made the first donation to the Edwin and Gladys Turner Scholarship Fund for student-athletes.

Ray Clevenger

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U.S. Representative | BA Political Science, ’49

Ray Clevenger served as Roosevelt’s student council president with Harold Washington as his vice president. In 1963, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in Michigan’s 11th congressional district. Clevenger wrote that his role in Congress gave him “the opportunity to learn about and teach the democratic principles that I had been taught at Roosevelt University.”

Clevenger voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; two decades later, the law was renewed with the support of Washington, his former VP.

Dempsey Travis

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Real Estate Entrepreneur, Civil Rights Activist | BA Political Science, ’49

Dempsy Travis

Dempsey Travis studied with Harold Washington at Roosevelt and later became a key fundraiser for his classmate’s mayoral campaigns. Travis also helped organize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1960 march on Chicago.

“I had never experienced the kind of camaraderie and spirit that existed [at Roosevelt] between white folks and blacks, it was unlike anything that was going on in the country,” Travis told the Chicago Tribune.

Travis founded several successful real estate and mortgage companies. As an activist and business owner, he fought redlining practices that discriminated against African American communities. He was also a prolific writer, the founder of the Urban Research Press, and an accomplished jazz musician.