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1950s
GATHERING OUR MEMORIES: REFLECTIONS OF MULTICULTURAL STUDENT LIFE AT CARLETON, 1874-2000
When TV test patterns gave way to Elvis Presley gyrating on the "Ed Sullivan Show," some considered that a greater threat to our society than the Korean Conflict or the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States. And in 1954, the United States Supreme Court Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision abolished segregation in public schools.
In the city of cows, colleges, and contentment, dormitories remained gender segregated, curfews continued to be enforced, and Carleton's student body continued to be predominately white. Only a small number of Black students could be found on campus during this decade. Despite the relative racial/cultural homogeneity among Carleton students, the burgeoning Civil Rights movement did not escape their attention. Carletonian reporters published articles about the various struggles for freedom and justice in which many African Americans were involved. But it would be the next decade that would prove to be the start of a watershed era at Carleton.
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H. Amelia Cobb '60
The first African American woman to graduate from Carleton was H. Amelia Cobb, from Washington, D.C. The daughter of a Howard University professor of anatomy, Cobb was very active in Carleton theater and went on to earn the M.F.A. degree from Yale in playwrighting.
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Earl A. Neil '57
The second African American graduate of Carleton, Earl Neil came from St. Paul. A track star and captain of the cross-country team, he was also Vice President of his Carleton class his junior year. Neil was ordained a minister in the Episcopal Church in 1960 and forged a career of activism in the civil rights movement and as a fighter for social justice. Neil was given an Alumni Achievement Award by Carleton in 1971 and has served as a Carleton trustee since that year.
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