Bayard Rustin at Princeton

I am delighted to learn that  in 1963, “Three thousand five hundred protesters form at Dillon Gym to hear Bayard Rustin of the NAACP, then march to Alexander Hall singing ‘We Shall Overcome’ to protest the speech there of segregationist Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett, who had been invited by Whig-Clio.”

Being female, I did not apply to Princeton in 1963. I had heard from my father, Thomas Findley Swarthmore ’42, about Paul Robeson’s difficult reception in Princeton, and I do not think I would have applied in any case. I attended grad school at the Office of Population Research while my husband was on the faculty at Princeton.

I have a family history in Princeton — my father  grew up in Princeton, as did his mother Mabel Wagner Findley; two of his uncles were Princeton grads; my grandfather father Marshall G. Findley got a degree in engineering from Princeton University; and my great-grandfather Thomas M. Findley grandfather received a divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. 

Bayard Rustin is one of my heroes.