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  Student Integration

  Before the mid-1950s, segregation was an unfortunate reality in the landscape of not only Arkansas State College (ASC), but establishments throughout the United States. The passage of Brown v Board of Education in 1954 led to a slow but steady shift towards integration and the gradual disappearance of the "white only"/"colored only" signs that were tacked on to everything from entrances to water fountains. Arkansas Attorney General Tom Gentry declared that the Supreme Court's decision applied to higher education as well, and required ASC to comply with the ruling.
  
  On August 4, 1955, ASC announced that they would begin integration; this announcement was one of the few times the matter was brought to the public's attention until years after the fact [1]. That same day, the ASC football coach, Billy Beal and professor of education, Dr. Robb Shanks publicly resigned-- while integration was not explicitly stated as the reason for their exit, the timing of it makes it highly probable [2]. As a concession to the remaining faculty, the administration allowed them to choose whether or not they would permit black students in their classes [3].
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  With peer pressure to integrate increasing after other state colleges had already done so, president Dr. Carl Reng decided that ASC would look for one or two “top notch kids” to be the first black students. A gas station owner from a black-majority area of town was consulted for references, and the owner identified two students who he felt would succeed [4]. Eventually, a third student was selected, and Larry Williams, Walter Strong, and Fred Turner began registration for the fall 1955 semester.
  
  Beyond the initial August announcement, Dr. Reng managed to keep the matter under the radar quite successfully, as he related in an oral history two decades later [5]. During the first week of classes news media swarmed the campus asking if there were any black students, and everyone replied that they had not seen any. Their answers were sincere, since Dr. Reng had asked the three students to begin classes a week late in anticipation of the unwanted attention. A formal announcement of the integration was not made to the student body, but all three students later said that their in-class experiences with fellow students ended up being fine.
  
  Nevertheless, the three students' extracurricular activities were sometimes limited in anticipation of possible confrontations. Walter Strong later noted that staying in campus dorms and joining a fraternity were off-limits at first, and he was asked to avoid joining the usually mandatory ROTC. Due to his previous military experience, he would have gone in as an officer and likely been in charge of white students [6]. One student who was in the choir was asked by Dr. Reng to not participate in a concert in Memphis so that the audience would not see or know he was a student [7].
  
  As the decade went on, though, progress was made toward fuller integration. The first three students were increasingly accepted, and Strong was even elected as an officer of the science club in 1959. In 1957, three female black students were enrolled: Billie Jean VanPelt Miller, Ellen Strong (Walter Strong's wife), and Nadene Sweatt. Miller and Walter Strong became the first black graduates of Arkansas State College in 1959, and others soon joined their ranks. A Black Student Organization was formed in 1968 and advocated for increased representation of African-Americans among both students and faculty.
  

  Staff/Faculty Integration

  The first black staff member at ASC was cook Fannie Cash in the 1930s, who was renowned across campus for her culinary skills and later moved to Washington DC to serve as a cook for Senator Hattie Caraway [8]. It would be several decades, however, before any other black staff or faculty arrived in her stead, and a full twelve years after the first black students arrived. 
  
  
  The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 helped change that; Title VI of the act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance. In 1969, while serving in Vietnam, ASC graduate Fred Turner was informed that Dr. Reng had asked that the Department of Defense to assign him to the ROTC Department at ASU as an assistant professor of Military Science [9]. Calvin Smith offered teaching position in summer of 1970 with the history department, and Herman Strickland and Wilbert Gaines were hired in 1971. Mossie Richmond, who arrived in 1972, eventually became interim president of the University for a time in 1994 before his death that year. Their mutual support group, known as the Circle, holds a newly prominent place on the A-State landscape with the establishment of a new graduate housing complex by that name in 2017.

  Student Activism

  The Black Student Organization established in 1968 soon advocated for other changes on campus that would better reflect the spirit of integration. Early on, the group provided ASU with a list of grievances/complaints they had, but the list alone made little headway. For some of their grievances, such as the playing of the song "Dixie" at football games, the group found that other methods of protest were more effective. The arrival of bus loads of students from all over the state to protest the song still did nothing, but when students organized a march around the track at the 1969 homecoming football game that was the last they heard of the song. Civil rights activist, journalist, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Carl Rowan came to campus to speak on the issue as well [10]​.
  
  Carving out a space of their own in the A-State landscape was important to the students as well. In 1970 the group was given a basement area under State Hall in School of Nursing building to meet at, known as "the tepee." A black fraternity was requested, and one arrived on campus in 1973 [11]. Gradually, the number of black students present on campus grew and allowed them to fill these spaces; a comparatively large influx came in 1970. One of the new students, Hershel Jones, was elected to the Student Government Association in 1971 and became the first African-American recipient of the University's prestigious Wilson Award in 1972 [12].
  
  Still, some protests had delayed results. One point of contention was the "Old South Days" event held by the fraternity Kappa Alpha, where members would dress up in rebel uniforms and march around campus while shooting off cannons [13]. Though the rebel uniforms and cannons were eventually banned, this event was still celebrated annually with antebellum-era clothing until it was banned nationally by the fraternity in the 2016-2017 school year.
  
  [1] "ASC To Comply With Ruling." Jonesboro Evening Sun, August 4, 1955.
  [2] "Two Resign From A.S.C. Faculty." Jonesboro Evening Sun, August 4, 1955. 
  [3] Carl R. Reng, interview by Larry Ball and William Clements, December 5, 1979, transcript, MidSouth Center for Oral History, Archives & Special Collections, Dean B. Ellis Library, Arkansas State University, 200-240.
  [4] Ibid. 
  [5] Ibid.
  [6] Walter Strong, interview by Dr. William Clements and Dr. Larry Ball, March 16, 1983, transcript, MidSouth Center for Oral History, Archives & Special Collections, Dean B. Ellis Library, Arkansas State University,  .
  [7] Carl R. Reng, interview.
  [8] Nancy Hendricks, Senator Hattie Caraway: An Arkansas Legacy (Arcadia Publishing, 2013), 25.
  [9] "The ASU Experience" African American Perspectives: Northeast Arkansas, Fall, 2010, 8-9.
  [10] Ibid., 16-18.
  [11] Ibid., 18.
  [12] Ibid., 21.
  [13] Ibid., 18.