Poll on Racial Attitudes at the University of Virginia

A 1952 poll at the University of Virginia solicits information about how open whites would be to the presence of African Americans in various aspects of university life. Although the first black student, Gregory Swanson, had been accepted to the law school two years earlier, full integration of the races in living and social situations still had not been achieved. When Swanson was being profiled by a national black publication, the universitys public relations director suggested that the visiting black photographer and reporter stay at the Carver Inn, the best of the places in Charlottesville providing hotel accommodations for Negroes, noting also that Swanson was living there while attending the law school.