'Get Off the Dime and Deal': A History of Haverford's Struggle to Diversify

January 22 - February 29, 2008 in the Sunken Lounge of the campus Dining Center.

The exhibit "Get Off the Dime and Deal" uses historical photographs to illustrate the story of Haverford's earliest—and ongoing—efforts to become a diverse, multicultural community, from its admission of the first students of color in the late 1800s to the inclusion of whites who did not come from well-established American Protestant families to debates within the College and Quaker communities over social justice, racial diversity, and the admission of women.

The exhibit takes its title from an interview with the philosopher Howard Thurman, who in 1929 became the first known black American to study at Haverford; he used the phrase in reference to a conversation he had had with Haverford's noted Quaker philosopher Rufus Jones about the exclusion of blacks from Quaker educational institutions. "I thought the phrase was relevant to the theme of the display," says exhibit coordinator and Dean of Academic Affairs Philip Bean, "in that Haverford, like all Northern liberal arts colleges, was founded for a limited segment of the population, and while a number of colleges made attempts to admit black students in the post-Civil War era, Haverford was not among them despite the historic efforts Quakers had made in the anti-slavery movement.

"However, this display is not just about how Haverford opened itself up to people of African descent, but to others as well," says Bean. "It's an account of how we got to where we are. It portrays moments in which the College sometimes consciously decided to open its doors more widely, when it began to 'get off the dime,' to use Thurman's phrase, to 'deal' with the reality of discrimination, and to act in a fashion consistent with professed high principles."