1943 Integration of Student Body
Clockwise from left: Dorothea Kopchynski '47, Walter Carl Darrow White '50, Gloria Clement '47, Walter Allen Winter '52, and Norman Matlock '48.
Gloria Clement and Dorothea Kopchynski enroll for the 1943-44 year, becoming the first Black students allowed to do so. In fall 1944, Norman T. Matlock came to campus with the Navy's V-12 program. Walter C. White and Walter A. Winter were also among the College's first Black students.
As President John Nason explained in a letter to Earlham College president Thomas Jones:
“It is the policy of Swarthmore College to accept students without discrimination as to race or color upon the bases of their ability to profit by residence here and to survive serious competition for place…. We welcome foreign students from all over the world and we think that our student body should represent not only all income classes in this country but all groups of people within our citizenry."
Although Nason was ultimately successful in convincing the Board to change the College's policy, the College did not actively recruit students of color for many more years.
