A Campaign of Quiet Persuasion: How the College Board Desegregated SAT® Test Centers in the Deep South, 1960-1965

6. The Campaign Ends, 1964–1967

172 the Campaign ends, 1964–1967 Number of black students attending school with whites in the Deep South, 1963–64. 583. —Reed Sarratt, Ordeal of Segregation Number of black students attending desegregated College Board Test Centers in Deep South, 1963–64. 2,500–3,000. —Ben Cameron, Ben Gibson, reports Ben Gibson did not take for granted that assistance from the Department of Defense would continue indefinitely. In early 1964 he wrote to Ben Cameron and Richard Pearson, the latter now serving as acting president of the College Board following Frank Bowles’s resignation. Mimicking the formality of the political establishment, Gibson addressed his two superiors as “The Honorable Ben F. Cameron, Jr.” and “The Honorable Richard Pearson” and reminded them that it was time to secure military base facilities for use as centers during the 1964–65 test year.1 Gibson suggested that they address their request to Alfred B. Fitt, James Evans’s supervisor, and deputy assistant secretary of defense for civil rights. During Evans’s long illness, Fitt had become the College Board’s contact at the Pentagon. Gibson’s draft of the letter to Fitt, enclosed for Cameron and Pearson’s approval, requested continued use of all military facilities that the College Board had used during the current test year, with the exception of Barksdale Air Force Base in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Campaign Ends, 1964–1967 173 The Barksdale test center would be moved to Centenary College, a private Methodist college that would admit its first black student in 1965.2 Cameron and Pearson communicated with both Evans and Fitt during the spring of 1964. Unlike James Evans, Fitt lacked enthusiasm for the military’s involvement with the College Board desegregation e≠ort. In March, he informed Pearson what he had learned through military channels about the racial situation in each of the cities where the College Board wished to continue testing at military facilities. Fitt indicated that the College Board might be able to move to civilian facilities in Huntsville, Alabama, and Beaufort, South Carolina, where Gibson and Cameron had set up test centers at the Redstone Arsenal and the Marine Recruit Depot, Parris Island, respectively.3 Fitt even optimistically anticipated “reasonable prospects” for setting up desegregated centers in Selma and Montgomery. He had sought no information on conditions in Jackson, as the military facilities there—reserve training centers rather than bases—fell outside his jurisdiction. Fitt encouraged Pearson to consider “whether the Board’s policy of requiring integrated facilities is really served by moving the site from community to federally controlled property,” a suggestion that left both Pearson and Cameron uneasy about the deputy assistant secretary’s level of commitment to helping them.4 Hoping to learn more about Fitt’s position, Cameron telephoned James Evans “to discuss with him again the Department’s continued assistance.” Evans told Cameron he would return his call and soon did so from a pay telephone outside the Pentagon. Evans had used pay telephones before when calling Cameron, and Cameron was never sure whether Evans was actually “scared” to talk to him, scared “to be seen” talking to him, or “was just trying to make it [their conversations] look more cloak-and-daggerish.” Evans’s unusual practice clearly intrigued and amused Cameron.5 If Evans’s motive for leaving his o∞ce to return Cameron’s telephone calls was unclear, his opinion about Fitt was not. While describing Fitt as a “dedicated individual,” Evans reported that his supervisor often acted rashly, “rushing in” uninformed under various circumstances “regardless of the consequences.” Evans believed that Fitt lacked an adequate understanding of the test center desegregation situation and that it was 174 a campaign of quiet persuasion unlikely that Pearson or Cameron would be able to sway his opinion and gain his full support. Instead, Evans recommended that Cameron communicate with Edward L. Katzenbach, deputy assistant secretary of defense for education, and cease any direct contact with Fitt. Fortunately, once the persuasive Cameron had fully explained “the whole matter” to Fitt, he found the assistant secretary willing to support the College Board’s e≠orts and involving Katzenbach was unnecessary. Cameron assured Fitt that he would continue to look for desegregated civilian facilities and that the College Board had succeeded very recently in securing a civilian facility in Jackson, Mississippi.6 That noteworthy success had come from Ben Gibson’s e≠orts to gain the cooperation of Catholic...