History of Georgia Tech/to Do - Integration and Expansion

Integration and Expansion

Includes the administrations of Paul Weber (interim, February 1956–August 1957) and Edwin D. Harrison (1957–1969)

After Van Leer's death, Paul Weber served as acting president from January 1956 to August 1957, while still holding the title of Dean of Faculties; it was difficult to find a permanent replacement due to discriminatory state laws and the looming issue of integration, along with a salary gap between Georgia Tech and comparable institutions. Weber's short tenure as acting president saw significantly increased enrollment standards, efforts by the Georgia Tech Foundation to increase faculty salaries, and further campus expansion including the Alexander Memorial Coliseum, which was completed and dedicated on October 27, 1956. Weber left larger organizational changes and integration for his eventual successor. After the selection of a replacement in the University of Toledo's Dean of Engineering, Edwin D. Harrison, Weber remained a Georgia Tech administrator and was named Vice President for Planning in 1966.

Around 1960, state law mandated "an immediate cut-off of state funds to any white institution that admitted a black student". At a meeting in the Old Gym on January 17, 1961, an overwhelming majority of the 2,741 students present voted to endorse integration of qualified applicants, regardless of race. Three years after the meeting, and one year after the University of Georgia's violent integration, Georgia Tech became the first university in the Deep South to desegregate without a court order, with Ford Greene, Ralph A. Long, Jr., and Lawrence Michael Williams becoming Georgia Tech's first three African American students; they registered for class on September 18, 1963 and started class on September 20. Members of the press were barred from the campus to discourage disruptive behavior, and plainclothes police officers were placed on the campus. The ANAK Society claims to have met with their families and discreetly kept an eye on the students once they enrolled to ensure peaceful integration.

There was little reaction to this by Tech students who, like the city of Atlanta described by former mayor William Hartsfield, were "too busy to hate". On the first day, the Ku Klux Klan came to Georgia Tech, marched up North Avenue, and picketed Harrison's house, staying just long enough to have their pictures taken. Lester Maddox chose to close his restaurant (near Georgia Tech's modern-day Burger Bowl) rather than desegregate, after losing a year-long legal battle in which he challenged the constitutionality of the public accommodations section (Title II) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1965, John Gill became The Technique's first black editor, and Tech's first black professor, William Peace, joined the faculty of the Department of Social Sciences in 1968.

The Ramblin' Wreck, the iconic 1930 Ford Model A Sport coupe that serves as the official mascot of the student body, was acquired in this era. The Wreck is present at all major sporting events and student body functions, and leads the football team into Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field, a duty it has performed since 1961. Dean of Student Affairs Jim Dull recognized a need for an official Ramblin' Wreck when he observed the student body's fascination with classic cars. Fraternities, in particular, would parade around their House Wrecks as displays of school spirit and enthusiasm. It was considered a rite of passage to own a broken-down vehicle. In 1960, Dull began a search for a new official symbol to represent the Institute. He specifically wanted a classic pre-war Ford. Dull's search employed newspaper ads, radio commercials, and other means to locate this vehicle. The search took him throughout the state and country, but no suitable vehicle was found until the autumn of 1960 when Dull spotted a polished 1930 Ford Model A outside of his apartment located in Towers Dormitory. The owner was Captain Ted J. Johnson, Atlanta's chief Delta Air Lines pilot. When Johnson returned to his car, he found a note from Dull attached to his windshield. Dull's note offered to purchase the car to serve as Georgia Tech's official mascot. Johnson, after great deliberation, agreed to take $1,000; he eventually returned the money in 1984 so that the car would be remembered as an official donation to Georgia Tech and the Alexander-Tharpe Fund. The Ramblin' Wreck was officially transferred to the Athletic Association on May 26, 1961.

James E. Boyd, Assistant Director of Research at the Engineering Experiment Station since 1954, was appointed Director of the station from July 1, 1957, a post in which he served until 1961. While at Tech, Boyd wrote an influential article about the role of research centers at institutes of technology, which argued that research should be integrated with education; he correspondingly involved undergraduates in his research. Under Boyd's purview, the EES gained many electronics-related contracts, to the extent that an Electronics Division was created in 1959; it would focus on radar and communications. The establishment of research facilities was also championed by Boyd. In 1955, Van Leer had appointed Boyd to Georgia Tech's Nuclear Science Committee, which recommended the creation of a Radioisotopes Laboratory Facility and a large research reactor. The $4.5 million ($34,161,000 today) Frank H. Neely Research Reactor would be completed in 1963 and would operate until 1996.

Harrison's administration also addressed the disparity between salaries at Georgia Tech and competing institutions. This was solved via the "Joint Tech-Georgia Development Fund" developed by the Georgia Tech Alumni Association in 1967, which supplemented salaries of faculty at both Georgia Tech and UGA and worked to attract high-quality faculty members to both schools.

Students across the nation protested the Vietnam War, including at similar institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where students picketed and blocked access to the Draper Laboratory that was producing guidance systems for the Poseidon missile. While The Technique did publish editorials against the United States' involvement, the Student Council easily defeated a bill endorsing the Vietnam Moratorium in the fall of 1969. There were significant protests at other institutions that conducted military research, but there were no protests against the military electronics research at the Georgia Tech Research Institute.

There was similar nationwide concern over the United States' involvement in the Cambodian Civil War, resulting in the Kent State shootings, which in turn caused about 450 colleges to suspend classes. In Georgia, the student response was largely restrained. Several hundred students at the University of Georgia marched on the home of president Frederick Corbet Davison demanding that the school be closed; consequently, all schools in the University System of Georgia were closed on May 8 and 9. While there were no protests at Tech, the students were still concerned over the events at Kent State; on May 8, four hundred students and faculty filled Bertha Square for a student-organized memorial, after which the students left quietly.

A 1965 plan signaled the beginning of Tech's expansion to include what is now West Campus. The area west of Hemphill Avenue, for decades the campus' western border, was then a working-class multiracial neighborhood, and Hemphill itself was a major city thoroughfare connecting Buckhead, the Atlantic Steel Mill, Techwood Homes and Downtown. In July 1968, Harrison resigned to the surprise of many in the Georgia Tech community; it was leaked to the press prior to his official announcement, and he subsequently released a public statement, saying that "ten years was long enough to be president of one university". The true reasons stemmed from his reorganization of the campus administration, and difficulties between Harrison and the Georgia Board of Regents and its chancellor over long-term goals and procedures.