Petitions for desgregation, submitted to CMU Board of Curators and President ca. 1950-1

These identical petitions, to Central College (now Central Methodist University)'s Board of Curators and President, includes signatures of over 400 students, faculty, and staff who demand that African American students be permitted to attend.  There is no date, but the petitions are believed to have been made and circulated either in 1950 or 1951.  According to the Faculty Council Meeting Minutes of October 10, 1952, the Student Christian Organization (SCO) circled the petition.

The petition cites both the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States:

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the states wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States..."

As well as the Doctrines and Disciplines of the Methodist Church, 1948:

"The principle of racial discrimination is in clear violation of the Christian belief in the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the kingdom of God, the proclamation of which in word and life is our gospel. We therefore have no choice but to denote it as unchristian and to renounce it as evil. This we do without equivocation.
...
"That provision be made whereby; all programs emanating from the Council of Bishops and the general agencies of the church shall be planned and promoted throughout the entire church with full participation of all racial groups.
...
"That the institutions of our church-colleges, universities, theological schools, hospitals, and homes be asked to restudy any policy which proceeds on the basis of racial discrimination. That we individually and, whereever possible, collectively stand for equality of political franchise and of economic and educational opportunities for all races."

A note on language: In the 1950s, ”colored" was generally used to describe a person of African, Black, or African American ancestry, and was occasionally used by those groups of people to describe themselves.  Today, the word “colored” is considered offensive and is no longer widely used.