In response to: General Letters to the Magazine
Current issue
July 2025
On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.
On the cover: Wilton Virgo ’00 and his classmates celebrate during the P-rade.
As we celebrate the 22nd year of the Princton Prize in Race Relations, it can be argued that the seeds for that effort were sewn in the early 1960s by John F. Kennedy ’39, John Doar ’44, and Nicholas Katzenbach ’43 through their efforts to ensure the desegregation of Southern universities. Few remember the risks, personal and political, that these individuals took to do the right thing. In September 1962, James Meredith was refused admission to the University of Mississippi. On Oct. 2, 1962, Doar, acting at the direction of President Kennedy, confronted Governor Ross Barnett on the university’s campus to admit Meredith to the university. Ultimately, JFK sent in the National Guard. Violence ensued and two people died in the subsequent confrontation, but Meredith was admitted.
On June 11, 1963, Katzenbach, under orders from JFK, accompanied Vivian Malone and James Hood and stood eyeball to eyeball with George Wallace at the entrance of the Foster Auditorium at the University of Alabama. Again, resistance was encountered and Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard to enforce his order; Malone and Hood gained admission.
On June 12, 1963, Medgar Evers was assassinated in Mississippi and rioting erupted. Doar returned to Mississippi and his intervention was critical to restoring calm to the situation. When Doar arrived in Jackson, he shouted, “My name is John Doar, D-O-A-R, I’m from the Justice Department and anybody here knows that I stand for what is right.”
It has been over 60 years since these Princetonians helped desegregate higher education in the South and their spirit remains through the Princeton Prize in Race Relations. The young men and women who receive the prize this year are the rightful heirs of this rich legacy made possible, in large measure, by Princetonians. What greater epitaph can any of us hope for than, “I stand for what is right.”
Editor’s note: The author is a member of the board of directors for the Boston chapter of the Princeton Prize in Race Relations.