By ANYA TANG

Staff Writer

Content Warning: Articles in this series depict specific instances of racial violence and aggression against Black and other non-white people. Racial epithets, though censored, are included.

This article is part of the multi-part series Since 1878, a project undertaken by the 142nd Board of The Exonian. The principal objective of this series is to examine the paper’s coverage of racism at the Academy and, by extension, in the country as a whole. This series will not provide a complete overview of racist events over the years in question. Additionally, research draws heavily from The Exonian’s archives, which present a biased depiction of racial dynamics at the Academy. Instead, the articles will offer a portrait of The Exonian, the Academy and the nation, decade by decade, by highlighting pieces published in the paper.

In Since 1878, The Exonian will follow the National Association for Black Journalists’ recommendations, referring to the n-word as [n-word], censoring n-gro in most contexts and capitalizing Black, in line with our updated style guide.

Regarding privacy, there are individuals named in these articles who are still alive today. Their statements represent their views as minors in the middle of their education. Most high schoolers do not write for publications like The Exonian, which archives every issue. The editors of the paper understand this unique situation and that views often change over time, particularly those held during high school. Additionally, every article represents more than its writer. Pieces in The Exonian go through editors and advisers, reflecting an institutional history.

However, Since 1878 uses their names to ground itself in the tangible and proximate. In Since 1878, the editors choose full transparency over perpetuating ambiguity and obscuring our history of racism.

Minstrelsy dominated The Exonian’s reporting on race throughout the 1890s, as it had in previous years. Notably, The Exonian covered the establishment of Exeter’s Minstrel Club. The decade also featured coverage on tertiary education for Black students, and the first Black editors joined the paper’s leadership.

Coverage

Minstrel Shows

Over the course of the decade, minstrelsy at Exeter grew in popularity, in keeping with the trend of previous years. In 1890, the Gorman Minstrel Troupe visited Exeter; they had also visited in 1888. “The Gormans rank among the highest and most perfect comedians upon the stage,” The Exonian wrote. “The press notices, to say the least, have been flattering.” 

Less popular but still covered were “Tom Shows,” travelling companies that performed adaptations of the anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. These companies received less acclaim than their minstrel counterparts, but they continued to perform near Exeter throughout the 1890s.

Minstrel shows appeared in The Exonian even more frequently in 1891. That year, The Exonian reported that minstrel shows were offered four times. The shows received consistently generous praise from The Exonian, being described as “the finest ever,” featuring “the best dancers,” “a roar from start to finish” and “one of the best shows on the New England circuit.” The Exonian in later years would specifically praise the minstrel shows’ stereotypical descriptions of Black people. For instance, the paper wrote in 1893 that “the colored people are noted for their eccentric dancing and n-gro melodies, and undoubtedly these minstrels will please their patrons.”

In 1893 and 1894, The Exonian mentioned minstrel shows nine times. Additionally, an Exeter Minstrel Club was formed in 1893. “The energy and zeal which certain fellows showed in arousing an interest and spirit among the students, sufficient to call a meeting for the purpose of organizing a minstrel club, led us to think that, after the failures in past years, some action might be taken which would result favorably,” The Exonian wrote. “Among the students, there are certainly some who have a natural ability in minstrelsy and whose superiority in this respect is recognized by the students.”

The Minstrel Club at Exeter eventually attempted to perform its own show; their attempt failed due to lack of engagement. “Last year endeavors were made to give a minstrel show, but, although this attempt failed, sufficient talent was not lacking and there are some in school now who were to take part,” The Exonian wrote in Feb. 1894. “Thus, you see we are not lacking in talent, but some enterprising persons who hunt it up and put it to this profitable use.”

After a few years with less coverage, minstrel shows reappeared on The Exonian’s pages. The paper often reported on traveling minstrel groups, including Henry’s Minstrels in 1897 and the Boston University Minstrel Troupe in 1898. Like previous coverage on these shows, The Exonian heaped minstrel shows with praise, calling them “the brightest, most elegant, pleasing, refined and varied.”

The Academy also reported on student minstrel shows, including a performance put on by the Exeter Glee Club in 1897. Attendants, such as the Velocipede Club, were “royally entertained” at the performance. 

Meanwhile, the school’s Minstrel Club continued to plan its own shows. In March 1899, The Exonian reported on a Minstrel Club meeting where new committee members were chosen to help organize the show. The show, planned as a fundraiser for the athletic association, was cancelled later that month “on account of the lateness of the season and for other reasons.”

Tertiary Education

As minstrelsy garnered popularity on campus, The Exonian began to report on “colored universities” in 1892. The first mention of universities specifically for Black undergraduates was in a May issue of The Exonian, which reported on four colleges in South Carolina, “all engaged in fitting colored people for teaching and other professional pursuits.”

Similarly, The Exonian also reported on the creation of historically-Black colleges, such as the planned donation of funds to establish an Oklahoma college for Black students. “William Astor has signified his intention of giving $1,000,000 to establish a n-gro university,” The Exonian wrote. The only historically-Black college in Oklahoma is Langston University, founded in 1897.

In the same year, The Exonian briefly reported on the desegregation of the University of Chicago’s campus. “Colored students of both sexes are admitted to the Chicago University,” The Exonian reported. This news was surrounded by unrelated headlines, most of them about collegiate sports results.

Debates

Additionally, The Exonian’s reports of the Golden Branch, the predecessor to the Daniel Webster Debate Society, featured debate resolutions about Black suffrage. “Then followed the debate on the subject, Resolved, That the right of suffrage should be taken away from the n-groes,” The Exonian wrote in an April 19, 1893 issue. No vote was announced in the article.

Three years later, in 1896, Exeter covered the first debate between Harvard and Yale, which concerned the topic “Resolved, That a permanent court of arbitration should be established by the United States and Great Britain.” Frank R. Steward ’92, an alumnus, argued on behalf of Harvard. “He is a colored boy, the son of an army chaplain, and during his academic course, which closed in 1892, he won reputation as an excellent scholar and prizes for excellence in declamation,” The Exonian reported.

Editorial Leadership

The 1890s also saw some of The Exonian’s first Black editors. On Dec. 13, 1890, The Chicago Tribune ran an article about Henry C. Minton ’91, nicknamed “Young Harry,” who was elected to be class orator. “He is undoubtedly one of the brightest boys in the school and ranks high in scholarship. He is an editor of the Phillips Literary Magazine and also of [The] Exonian, the weekly school paper, and is a vigorous writer,” The Tribune reported. Minton served as Assistant Managing Editor, then the second highest position in The Exonian, in addition to roles in the Golden Branch and the yearbook. Since 1878 has not found records of any Black editor before Minton.

Minton’s election as Assistant Managing Editor was announced in The Exonian’s standard style, without much fanfare, on June 12, 1890. “The following board of editors has been elected for next year: Managing Editor, G. M. Leventritt, ’91; Assistant Managing Editor, H. C. Minton, ’91,” the paper read. No mention was made of his race.

After his tenure, Minton wrote back to The Exonian, praising his time with the paper. “Once leaving Exeter, I have not done any actual newspaper work. I have, however, written some special articles for newspapers and magazines, and in doing this my experience on [The] Exonian has undoubtedly helped me,” he wrote on April 19, 1893. “My membership on the Exonian Board for so many years, from my second or junior year to the end of my fourth or senior year, brought me much experience in the routine of the printing office and in reading proofs. This knowledge has been most valuable to me since then in superintending printing of various sorts which I have had charge of for organizations and institutions I have been connected with.” Since 1878 found no other direct quotes by Minton in the archives.

However, Minton’s time at the Academy was mired by racism from other students. “Minton’s election [as class orator] has kicked up such a commotion among the boys in the lower classes as is seldom experienced. The students are many of them blue-bloods of the deepest dye and not a few of them come from the South, bringing with them the prejudices against a color of a darker hue that Southern youngster find it harder to hide than do their more discreet elders,” The Tribune continued. 

“By some it is said that two-thirds of the students were opposed to the selection of young Minton to the highest honor of the course, but as the senior class chooses its own officers, the middles and juniors and preps had nothing to do but kick if they didn’t like the result,” The Tribute concluded. 

Seven years later, an announcement in the March 24, 1897, issue of The Exonian welcomed Roscoe Bruce ’98 to the paper, again as Assistant Managing Editor. R. Bruce was the son of Blanche Bruce, the second African American elected to the U.S. Senate, and women’s rights activist Josephine Beall Willson Bruce, an educator who would later become the principal of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee University. Named after Senator Roscoe Conkling, a longtime politician who defended B. Bruce against anti-Black racism in the Senate chamber, R. Bruce went on to Harvard University, where he became a celebrated debater and graduated magna cum laude in 1902. 

Though the 1890s marked the entry of Black editors into The Exonian, their presence was not enough to quell the prevailing racism still present on the paper’s broadsheet pages. 

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