Segregation at dental schools
Simkins matriculated at Harvard's dental school in 1949, when only two schools accepted black students. He assumed that segregation would continue.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with George Simkins, April 6, 1997. Interview R-0018. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- KAREN KRUSE THOMAS:
-
When you entered dentistry in 1949, what was your sense of the
opportunities that were available for African-American health
professionals? Did it seem like there were more opportunities opening up
than there had been before?
- GEORGE SIMKINS:
-
At that time, there were two dental schools that accepted blacks,
Meharry and Howard, in Washington, DC. Some of the Northern schools
would accept blacks, but no dental school in the South. There
weren't many opportunities at that time.
- KAREN KRUSE THOMAS:
-
Were you aware of any attempts to encourage Southern schools to admit
black students at that time, or was it accepted that those two schools
would be the main places?
- GEORGE SIMKINS:
-
At that time, everything was "separate but equal." I
had no idea that these schools would later be integrated, because I
thought it was going to stay the same.
