Perkins Led The Way Summary

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Recommended: An essay about black segregation

Was Desegregation Really Integration: SMU as a case study? After slavery was abolished, blacks became free men but were segregated in society. Restrooms, bus seats, restaurant and virtually every public building and institution were separated based on race. As time progressed, blacks were tired of discrimination and began to demand treatment with equality. After several court cases, for example the notoriously famous Plessy vs Ferguson case, the separate but equal rule was legally established. This was not enough however; blacks demanded their rights as they were also American forcing integration. Ideal integration, as those who fought in civil rights movement must have imagined it, involves the acceptance of the black community for who they …show more content…

Merrimon Cuninggim was the dean of Perkins School of Theology who successfully integrated Perkins by admitting five black students. In Merrimon Cuninggim’s book, “Perkins Led the Way: the story of desegregation at Southern Methodist University,” he describes the collaborative method that was used to settle issues that the presence of black students will raise. Rather than giving them a list of rules of what they could and could not do like the students expected, as he states in his speech at an Alumni convention, the students and the dean would discuss concerns, and he would provide advice that the students may or may not …show more content…

Cuninggim, the dean who championed the admission of the first black students at SMU, seemed to have a personal conviction that there should be equality between black and whites. This can be denoted from his address to the board of trustees, he said “This way of education is the direct and honorable way… the only way we could testify to the continual working of God’s grace among us.” Also, when president Lee asks him to become the dean of the Perkins School of Theology, one of the questions that he asked that was instrumental to his acceptance was if “the way was open for black students,” and the response was yes. However, President Lee’s response was only half-true. The board had agreed that students can be accepted to SMU, but had not necessarily embraced the concept of integration. In “And so we moved quietly,” Cashion states that “the board had allowed to let blacks in and nothing more.” They were still uncomfortable with the lodging of black students and if they would be allowed to live in the same dormitory or eat in the

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