[Handbill for a Debate Between Two Southern HBCUs]

[Scotlandville, Louisiana]: [Southern University], 1938. Good. 7½" x 5¼". Handbill. Good: moderately creased and soiled; manuscript notes on both sides.

This is a handbill for a debate between Southern University (SU) and Alcorn A&M College, now known as Alcorn State University (ASU). One of the debaters, Viola Johnson, fought for racial justice in higher education and went on to a noteworthy medical career.

SU was established in New Orleans in 1880 as Southern University for Colored Students. It exists today as Southern University and A&M College, located in Baton Rouge, and is the largest HBCU in Louisiana. ASU, a public HBCU in Mississippi, was founded in 1871 and was the first Black land grant college established in the United States.

The subject of the debate was: "Resolved: That the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB] should be empowered to enforce arbitration of all Industrial Disputes." This was a hot topic in college debates at the time - the newly created NLRB was experiencing growing pains, as strikes and labor disputes were rampant throughout the country and millions of Americans were jobless. The handbill is extensively notated, almost certainly in real time by someone at the event as most of the notes relate to arguments for the negative position.

One of the three debaters on the "affirmative" side was Viola Johnson. Johnson graduated from SU in 1938 and taught at Grambling University before going into medicine. In 1946 Johnson was rejected from Louisiana State University's medical school because of her race. She filed suit with the NAACP. Though she ultimately lost her case, the litigation laid the ground for the historic Sweatt v. Painter case in Texas which ruled that a university could not reject an applicant solely on the basis of race. Johnson went on to become Dr. Viola Coleman, the first Black female physician in Midland, Texas.

A rare survival of an HBCU debate. OCLC shows no holdings.