'A Color Line in Oberlin?'
An article in the Oberlin Review on February 3, 1883 refers to the perception of a ‘color line’ in Oberlin, an indication that the College was no longer upholding its values regarding racial equality: “At the Ladies Hall white students have refused to sit at the same table with the colored ladies.” President James Fairchild and Ladies Hall Principal Adelia Field Johnston intervened, apparently making the policy of the College clear, but according to this article "their request has been unwillingly complied with." The author suggests that values of the institution had not changed, but that the values of some of the students had.
This question about a 'color line' was revisited in an article in the Oberlin Review on March 3, 1883 by self-identified 'negro' students (it is not clear if the February 3 piece was written by white or "colored" students - or both) who speculated on the effect that wealth and social class had on white students' attitudes about race. This article describes another incident of prejudice in which a 'theologue' objected to sitting next to a "colored" man in the church choir.
The authors acknowledge that:
the faculty cannot change each student's heart, but they can demand that this principle of the Institution shall be carried out in the Ladies' Hall at least ... We expect to endure some slights here, to meet some prejudice, but when it comes to a separate table at the Ladies' Boarding Hall in liberal, Christian Oberlin, it is more than we ever conceived of. And we are thankful to say that through the decision of the President there is no longer any cause for complaint at the Hall.
Junior Exhibition
The program for the Junior Exhibition of 1883, one of the major public events of the academic year, lists Terrell as a member of the Committee on Decoration; she had hoped to have the honor of delivering the poem at the exhibition.
In her memoir, Terrell recalls the sting of disappointment at not being elected class poet:
The honor went instead to a white male student, who was not previously known for literary talent. The encouragement of the classmates who had nominated her and who voted for her in a series of ballots kept Terrell from dwelling on the incident.There is no doubt whatever that on this one occasion, at least, the fact that I am colored prevented me from receiving the honor which many members of my class thought my record proved I deserved (CWWW 43).
I know now better than I did then that "blood is thicker than water" when several racial groups come together to elect a representative of the whole (CWWW 44).