Bob Jones University Apologizes for the Racist Past
Bob Jones University, the Bible university in Greenville, sc, would not acknowledge students that are black the 1970s. Then, for a period that is 30-year interracial relationship ended up being forbidden. Now the college has established that its polices had been incorrect.
Missing in the dazzling news reports associated with election of the black colored guy as president of this united states of america is another event — this time around in advanced schooling — that appears as being a milestone in racial progress. Within an eloquent declaration, Stephen Jones, great-grandson for the creator together with 4th president of Bob Jones University, has apologized for the institution’s racist past.
President Jones claimed, “For nearly two hundreds of years Christianity that is american BJU with its first stages, was described as the segregationist ethos of US tradition. Consequently, for way too very very long, we permitted institutional policies race that is regarding be shaped more straight by that ethos than by the concepts and precepts of this Scriptures. We conformed to your tradition as opposed to give a definite christian counterpoint to it.
“by doing this, we did not accurately represent god also to match the commandment to love other people as ourselves. Of these problems our company is profoundly sorry. Though no understood antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a level that is personal ever been tolerated on our campus, we permitted institutional policies to remain in position which were racially hurtful.”
By way of back ground to the remarkable announcement let’s review the racial reputation for Bob Jones University.
The founder that is university’s Bob Jones, was a fundamentalist evangelist whom thought that the idea of development ended up being an abomination. He called the pope the anti-Christ and dismissed Catholicism being a “Satanic counterfeit.” He when stated, “I would personally instead experience a saloon on every corner than the usual Catholic within the White House.”
Jones Sr. ended up being associated with view that twentieth-century blacks must be grateful to whites for bringing their ancestors to the national nation as slaves. If this hadn’t occurred, Jones published in 1960, “they might nevertheless be over here when you look at the jungles of Africa, unconverted.” Integrationists, relating to Jones, had been wrongfully wanting to expel normal boundaries that Jesus himself had founded.
With the aid of rich supporters, Bob Jones founded a university near Panama City, Florida, in 1926. Bibb Graves, that has simply been elected governor of Alabama using the formal backing associated with the Ku Klux Klan, offered the keynote address during the groundbreaking ceremony. Whenever classes started in 1927, admission of pupils ended up being formally limited to people in the race that is white a policy that persisted until 1971.
Experiencing Depression-related financial hardships in 1933, Bob Jones ended up being forced to offer the Florida land and go their university to Cleveland, Tennessee. In 1936 A billy that is young graham this new Bob Jones College in Tennessee. But he quickly became disenchanted having its strict spiritual doctrine and social policies and utilized in Florida Bible Institute. In 1947 Bob Jones university moved once again, this time around to its current website in Greenville, South Carolina. Now financially seem, the faculty begun to provide master’s and doctoral levels and assumed the designation of the college.
Whenever Bob Jones Jr., the son associated with the creator, became the institution’s president, the institution’s was continued by him policies of rabid bigotry. During their tenure he bestowed honorary levels on George 
Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Lester Maddox. Whenever Pope Paul VI passed away in 1978, Bob Jones Jr. called him the “archpriest of Satan, a deceiver, in which he has, like Judas, attended their very own spot.”
Whenever Bob Jones III assumed the presidency associated with the organization in 1971, male students had been needed to wear coats and ties to classes. Females had been obliged to put on dresses or skirts. Rock music had been prohibited on campus. Students had been forbidden from going to films. Pupils are not allowed to go on off-campus times without having a chaperone. On campus, the university maintained two parlors that are“dating where pupils could satisfy to talk. Touching had not been permitted and kissing had been strictly forbidden even when the couple had been involved to be hitched. Male and students that are female perhaps maybe maybe not allowed to talk with one another after 7 p.m. The campus had been divided through the city of Greenville by an iron and fence that is barbed-wire.
Under government stress, Bob Jones University finally opened its doorways to unmarried black colored pupils. But strict laws had been founded because of the college to avoid interracial relationship. The policy on interracial dating resulted in the Internal Revenue Service’s revoking the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University retroactive to 1970 in 1976, during the administration of Gerald Ford. The IRS demanded the repayment of $490,000 in straight back taxes. The college appealed the ruling. Fundamentally, in 1981, the Supreme Court for the case was heard by the United States. The brand new Reagan management initially supported the career for the college but, after an outcry that is public switched edges. In 1983 the Supreme Court ruled against Bob Jones University in support of the IRS by way of a vote of 8 to at least one. The dissenter that is lone belated Chief Justice associated with the united states of america William Rehnquist.* On being advised for the choice associated with the Court, Bob Jones III ordered that the US flags on campus be flown at half-staff.
A public relations spokesman for the university, explained the school’s prohibition against interracial dating: “God has separated people for his own purposes in 1998 Jonathan Pait. He’s erected barriers between the countries, not just land and ocean barriers, but in addition ethnic, social, and language obstacles. God has made individuals distinctive from each other and intends those distinctions to keep. Bob Jones University is in opposition to intermarriage associated with the events since it stops working the barriers Jesus has built.”
In 2000 the college finished its formal prohibition against interracial relationship. Now eight years later, the university has admitted that its policies had been incorrect.
This modification of heart at Bob Jones University comes regarding the heels of present very good news about black colored enrollments during the nation’s other Bible universities. JBHE’s database implies that in 1997 there have been just nine Bible colleges where blacks composed ten percent or even more of total enrollments. Today you can find 29 such schools.
*William Rehnquist had a lengthy reputation for opposition to the development of blacks. He opposed the 1954 Supreme Court choice in Brown v. Board of Education and also as a young gop pollwatcher in Arizona, Rehnquist ended up being active in challenging black voters’ skills.
For more in the racism of Rehnquist, see “The Racial Views regarding the Chief Justice associated with the united states of america,” JBHE, quantity 23, Spring 1999, p. 72.
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