Rev. Wilbur Steele, who served as Bennett Seminary’s principal from 1881 to 1889, briefly highlighted the advantages of educating women when he praised his former students’ professional accomplishments.

“Ten of these old students have been members of the General Conference, nine of them as delegates and nearly all of them as alternates,” noted Steele.

“As many more are nearly as notable in their communities and in the elevation of their race, not to mention as many of the girls.”28

By 1910, North Carolina far outpaced the nation in the number of bachelor
of arts degrees awarded to African American women. Of the 168 degrees awarded.

in the state, Bennett had granted 71. The next highest total among southern states was Tennessee, which had awarded a total of 91 degrees.29

As the era of the New Negro dawned, the question (at least in North Carolina) was not whether Black women would benefit from increased opportunities for education, but whether that education would fit within the paradigm of black radicalism sweeping across the country.

Bennett Belles, nurtured by the school’s communities and encouraged to develop a strong sense of self, were exposed to a steady stream of Black scholars and activists who visited campus, many of whom openly denounced racial injustice.

Armed with knowledge, these young women carefully considered where and when they might take bolder stands against Jim Crow and white supremacy.

They also welcomed a new president who would politicize and train Bennett College students as agents for social and political change.

When David Dallas Jones was appointed to the Bennett presidency in 1927, he
was returning home. Jones was born and raised in Greensboro and left his Dixie roots behind to pursue degrees at Wesleyan College and Columbia University.

When he finally returned home to the Tar Heel State, he brought with him a background in racial reconciliation. Jones served on the Commission on Interracial Cooperation, based in Atlanta, a rather conservative organization that tiptoed around volatile issues of race instead of tackling them head on.

The commission soon spread throughout
the South, acting as a council of the enlightened, where cooler heads could prevail to deal with the percolating racial tension across the South. Jones was not alone in this venture.

During the interwar period and beyond, several black college presidents
were invited to participate in the various interracial commissions that were being
established throughout the South.

As historian Raymond Gavins observes, these organizations were created to “meliorate grievances and ease tensions,” but they were never designed to dismantle the racial hierarchy that imprisoned Blacks in a permanent state of inequality.30

Through their participation with the commissions, Black college presidents such as Jones were welcome additions to a group that provided the illusion of gradualism, race cooperation, and peace—but Jones soon offered more than just a token nod toward the idea of Black liberation.
-End of excerpt-

Source: Pg. 399, 400- Race Women: New Negro Politics and the Flowering of Radicalism
at Bennett College, 1900–1945 page 391, By JELANI M. FAVORS - The NC Historical Review- Volume XCIV Published in October 2017 Number 4.