Portrait Presentation Draft


Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Presidential Initiative

There will be a modest gathering in the Winthrop Common Room at 4 pm on
March 31st to hang a portrait of Edwin Bush Jourdain ‘21, alongside W.E.B. Du
Bois, and John Hope Franklin (with John Kennedy on the other side).  Our Class
will be represented at the Presentation by Tom Blodgett, Joan
Hutchins, Josh Young, Todd Lee, and Mark DeVoto (schedules permitting).

Members of the Class of ‘61 are invited to a post-Presentation
Dinner at Henrietta’s Table in the Charles Hotel

 

 

 

 

 

Edwin Bush Jourdain, Jr.

  • Born in 1900, the son of Attorney Edwin Bush Jourdain Sr.- a colleague of W.E.B. Du Bois and a co-founder of the Niagara Movement and NAACP- the 20th Century Black civil rights movement’ and grandnephew of a Regimental organizer of Robert Gould Shaw’s 54th Massachusetts (Colored) Regiment.
  • 1917:  Entering Harvard College as a freshman in the new Standish Hall (opened 1916), Edwin participates on the Harvard track team
  • 1921 Edwin graduates from Harvard College and enters the Harvard Business School.
    • At the start of the school year, Edwin is informed that a black freshman from New Bedford is barred from living in Standish Hall because of race.
    • Edwin is allowed to meet with President Lowell and declares his opposition to segregated dormitories, thus launching a two-year, and eventually nationally, publicized protest by Harvard students, faculty and administrators against Lowell’s plans for a segregated student body.
  • 1923:  the Harvard Board of Overseers and the Harvard Corporation declare racial segregation had no place at Harvard and direct President Lowell to end his segregation policies.  Edwin was recognized by his peers as the initiator of that historic reversal of Harvard’s direction, from segregation to its current impressive commitment to racial and overall human equality.
  • 1924:  Edwin moved to Chicago (soon to reside in Evanston) and rose rapidly from reporter to a managerial position at the historic Chicago Defender newspaper.
  • 1931:  Edwin penned a crucial editorial warning Evanston’s growing black community of the need to oppose a city council initiative to divide their large 5th Ward in order to eliminate any possibility of a black seat in the council.  At the request of the black community to campaign to be Evanston’s first black representative in the city council, he organized a powerful modern (HBS style) election campaign and won, despite powerful fraudulent attempts to nullify his election.  
  • 1932-47:  Edwin led brilliant strategies that ended racial segregation in Evanston movie theatres, public parks, sports team games, all white city teachers policy, and virtually segregated schools.  During WWII, he dramatically raised black troop morale and home front support for the inspirational Double Victory for human equality (overseas and at home).  In Evanston he waged a dramatic but failed campaign to gain equal housing for the returning black WWII veterans.  
  • 1984:  Harvard University honored Edwin for his contributions to Harvard, his city, and the nation.