Vanderbilt University

===1950s and 1960s===
[[File:Oldmech.jpg|thumb|right|Old Mechanical, now part of The Owen Graduate School of Management]]

In the early 1950s, some of the first women graduated as engineers. Women's rights advocate [[Maryly Van Leer Peck]] graduated as the first chemical engineer in 1951 after not being able to study this field at [[Georgia Tech]] where her father was president.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeO2AgAAQBAJ&dq=%22van+leer%22+kkk&pg=PA146|title=Girls Coming to Tech|date=January 14, 2014|access-date=January 14, 2014|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|isbn=978-0-262-32027-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Name|url=http://frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/vuse_web/alumni/alumni-bios/vanleerpeck-maryly.html?keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=500|access-date=2022-02-05|website=frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu}}</ref> In 1953, Chancellor Branscomb orchestrated admission of the first African American student to Vanderbilt, in the [[Vanderbilt Divinity School|School of Divinity]].<ref name="Johnson">{{cite web|last1=Carey|first1=Bill|title=First African-American student left many legacies|url=http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Register/feb10_03/20030212johnson.html|publisher=Vanderbilt University|access-date=May 10, 2015|date=February 12, 2003|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151228005918/http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Register/feb10_03/20030212johnson.html|archive-date=December 28, 2015}}</ref> In 1960, under intense pressure from the Vanderbilt Board of Trust, especially [[James Geddes Stahlman]], a Trustee and the influential editor of the local newspaper, Branscomb expelled Divinity student [[James Lawson (American activist)|James Lawson]]. Lawson was a [[Congress of Racial Equality]] leader who organized sit-ins in defiance of Nashville's segregation laws. A dozen faculty members resigned in protest. Branscomb later re-examined his decision, regretting he did not consider referring it to committee to delay action for three months until Lawson's graduation.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Branscomb |first=Harvie |title=Purely Academic: An Autobiography |publisher=Vanderbilt University |year=1978 |location=Nashville, TN |pages=152–65 |language=English}}</ref>  The school was placed on probation for a year by the [[American Association of Theological Schools]], and the power of trustees was curtailed.<ref name="sumner34">{{cite journal |last1=Sumner |first1=David E. |date=Spring 1997 |title=The Publisher and the Preacher: Racial Conflict at Vanderbilt University |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=56 |issue=1 |pages=34–43 |jstor=42627327}}</ref> The university took Stahlman's $5 million donation in 1972–1973,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Fontenay|first1=Charles L.|title=Stahlman Suffers Stroke; Condition Termed Critical |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/112583435/?terms=%22James%2BG.%2BStahlman%22|access-date=December 17, 2017|work=The Tennessean |date=May 1, 1976|pages=1; 8|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|url-access=registration }}</ref> and named a professorship in his honor.<ref>{{cite web |title=Jefferson Cowie, James G. Stahlman Professor of History|url=https://as.vanderbilt.edu/history/bio/jefferson-cowie |website=Department of History|publisher=Vanderbilt University}}</ref> In 2005, Lawson was re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006–2007 academic year. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements.<ref name="Lawson stuff">{{cite news|last=Patterson|first=Jim|title=The Rev James Lawson to return as visiting professor|work=The Vanderbilt Register|date=January 30, 2006|url=http://news.vanderbilt.edu/archived-news/register/articles/index-id=24339.html|access-date=January 10, 2007|archive-date=March 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305015947/http://news.vanderbilt.edu/archived-news/register/articles/index-id=24339.html}}</ref>

In May 1962 the Board of Trustees approved a recommendation from Chancellor Branscomb to admit [[African Americans]] in all of the university's educational schools.<ref name=":1" /> The first black [[undergraduates]] entered the school in the fall of 1964.<ref name="Johnson" /> The university drew national attention in 1966 when it recruited [[Perry Wallace]], the first African American to play varsity basketball in the [[Southeastern Conference]] (SEC).<ref>{{cite web |title = Perry Wallace |publisher = Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame |url = http://www.tshf.net/inductees/2003Wallace.htm |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724113948/http://www.tshf.net/inductees/2003Wallace.htm |archive-date = July 24, 2011 |year = 2003 |access-date = August 17, 2007}}</ref>  Wallace, from Nashville, played varsity basketball for Vanderbilt from 1967 to 1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues.<ref name="Wallace">{{cite web |url=http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/020713aaa.html |title=Wallace was first black player in SEC |access-date=August 3, 2015 |archive-date=October 17, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017221952/http://www.vucommodores.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/020713aaa.html  }}</ref> In 2004, a student-led drive to retire Wallace's jersey finally succeeded.<ref name="Wallace" />{{efn|Contrary to widely stated belief, however, Wallace was not the first African-American athlete in the SEC:
* Stephen Martin, who was attending [[Tulane University]] on an academic scholarship, [[Walk-on (sports)|walked on]] to Tulane's [[Tulane Green Wave baseball|baseball team]] in his sophomore season of 1966 (1965–66 school year), and earned [[Varsity letter|letters]] in that season as well as the 1967 and 1968 seasons. Martin is often overlooked as an SEC integration pioneer because his first season of 1966 was Tulane's last as an SEC member.<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://tulanegreenwave.com/news/2013/5/16/Tulane_Mourns_the_Passing_of_Integration_Pioneer_Stephen_Martin_Sr_.aspx |title=Tulane Mourns the Passing of Integration Pioneer Stephen Martin Sr. |publisher=[[Tulane Green Wave]] |date=May 16, 2013 |access-date=January 30, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Maraniss |first=Andrew |date=2014 |title=Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South |publisher=[[Vanderbilt University Press]] |page=221 |isbn=978-0-8265-2024-1 |author-link=Andrew Maraniss }}</ref>
* At the same time that Wallace and another African-American basketball player, Godfrey Dillard (who transferred from Vanderbilt before playing in a varsity game),<ref name=usatoday>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/sec/2004-02-19-sec-trailblazer_x.htm|title=An SEC trailblazer gets his due|last=Carey|first=Jack |date=February 19, 2004|newspaper=USA Today |access-date=March 7, 2010}}</ref> enrolled as scholarship athletes at Vanderbilt, the [[University of Kentucky]] enrolled two African-American scholarship football players, Nate Northington and Greg Page. Since freshmen were not eligible to play varsity sports at the time, players who enrolled in school in 1966 could not play on varsity teams until 1967. Because the football season precedes the basketball season within the school year, both were set to become the first African-American scholarship athletes in the SEC, but Page suffered a paralyzing spinal cord injury in a 1967 preseason practice and died from the complications on September 29, less than a week after Northington became the SEC's first black scholarship athlete when he played his first game for [[Kentucky Wildcats football|Kentucky]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.kentucky.com/sports/college/kentucky-sports/uk-football/article103568827.html |title=UK reveals sculpture honoring first black football players |first=Mark |last=Story |newspaper=[[Lexington Herald-Leader]] |date=September 22, 2016 |access-date=January 30, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://ukathletics.com/documents/2018/7/17/2018_KentuckyFBRecord_Book_WEB.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180913074031/https://ukathletics.com/documents/2018/7/17/2018_KentuckyFBRecord_Book_WEB.pdf  |archive-date=September 13, 2018 |title=Pioneers of Integration in the SEC |work=2018 UK Football Record Book |publisher=[[Kentucky Wildcats]] |access-date=September 12, 2018 }}</ref>}}

In 1964, Vanderbilt held its first IMPACT Symposium, which has since become a university tradition of hosting speakers in a multi-day annual symposium to discuss current events and topics of a controversial nature.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://studentorg.vanderbilt.edu/vpb/speakers/|title=Speakers|date=September 28, 2010}}</ref> Participants have included [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Stokely Carmichael]], [[Strom Thurmond]], [[Robert F. Kennedy]], [[Margaret Thatcher]], [[Madeleine Albright]], [[Vicente Fox]], [[Ehud Barak]], and multiple Presidents of the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://studentorg.vanderbilt.edu/vpb/2014/02/19/impact-through-the-years/|title=IMPACT through the Decades|date=February 19, 2014}}</ref>