Dealing with discrimination at NYU in the 1920s
In the late 1920s, Spaulding arrived at New York University. He would excel there, but first had to deal with discrimination. Dissuaded from living in an all-white dorm, and told by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People that he had no recourse for complaint, he settled down with a relative, 140 blocks north of the university.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with Asa T. Spaulding, April 13, 1979. Interview C-0013-1. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- WALTER WEARE:
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Now, as I recall, you were telling once before about your living
arrangements.
- ASA T. SPAULDING:
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Oh, yes. You see, when I went there, I had applied for admission. They
had one dormitory for school of commerce students—Varick
House. And I had applied and sent the deposit, and was accepted. If
I've told you this, I won't repeat it.
- WALTER WEARE:
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Well, I think it's important to report it.
- ASA T. SPAULDING:
-
All right. That's where I felt this matter of discrimination
probably more keenly than at any time before. And when I presented
myself, and had my trunk and all there, delivered there, and went in to
obtain my room, they questioned whether or not I had reservations. I
told them I had, and I had my receipt for it, and I showed it. And the
house manager, or whoever it was—I found out later he was
from Charlotte, North Carolina— but he
was in charge there, and he came and he saw that I had my receipt, and
that I had been admitted. So his approach was to try to persuade me not
to insist upon it. He said, "Because, you know, there are a lot
of Southern students here, and they will make it miserable for
you." Well, he was probably right in 1927. "And the
circumstances under which you would have to stay would be most
difficult, and it could even result in your not being able to pass your
examinations." Well, I listened to him and all. I said,
"Still I'd like to have my room." Well, I
don't remember all the details of that now, but in the final
bottom line of it, he had my check in his hand. And he said, after he
told me about how it would be unpleasant, and I wouldn't
enjoy it at all and so forth and so on, he handed me my check. And,
thoughtlessly, I accepted it. But I went directly from there to the
NAACP office and reported the situation in detail. I told them that he
had returned the check and I had accepted it. They said, "Well,
there isn't anything we can do for you. If you had not
accepted that check, we might have forced the issue."
- WALTER WEARE:
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The sense of the contract was no longer valid.
- ASA T. SPAULDING:
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That's right. Because he had offered the refund and I had
accepted it. So then I had a half-sister that lived up on 144th Street.
I remember the address: 242 West 144th Street. I went up there and
stayed with her the whole time I was there at NYU.
- WALTER WEARE:
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That's some distance from NYU, isn't it?
- ASA T. SPAULDING:
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Oh, yes. NYU was down on 4th Street. I had to used the elevated train
back and forth over there. So, you see, I'd get from the post
office anywhere from eight thirty, nine, nine thirty at night, and would
have to get up in time the next morning to catch that train, to be down
on 4th Street by eight o'clock. I'd get off the
elevated train and have my breakfast at a Greek
restaurant right there at the foot of the steps, and go on over.