The Bassett Affair is a celebrated case that helped establish the concept of academic freedom in higher education in the United States and is a benchmark incident in race relations in the South. John Spencer Bassett, a Trinity College professor, published a series of articles in the South Atlantic Quarterly (1903) that praised the accomplishments of African Americans and offered views on how to improve race relations. A campaign to remove Bassett from the faculty was thwarted by a vote of support for Bassett from the University's Board of Trustees on Dec. 2, 1903. The collection contains essays, articles, clippings, correspondence, reminiscences, and other published and unpublished matter including Bassett's article, Stirring Up the Fires of Race Antipathy (1903); a scrapbook, 1903-1904, kept by Trinity College officials with newspaper clippings documenting national coverage the case received; copies of letters by Theodore Roosevelt to Owen Wister (1906) commenting on the case and on Trinity; manuscripts of My Recollections of the Bassett Trial, by Robert Lee Durham (1936), The Bassett Affair: A Play in Six Acts, by Baird Straughan (1975), and Crisis at Trinity a play by John Merritt (1989); lists of related materials in other collections; various shorter articles and speeches including comments by Richard L. Watson and an address to the Academic Council by Terry Sanford; and materials from the centennial celebration of the Bassett Affair, collected by University Archives staff. English.
The Bassett Affair is a celebrated case that helped establish the concept of academic freedom in higher education in the United States and is a benchmark incident in race relations in the South. John Spencer Bassett, a Trinity College professor, published a series of articles in the South Atlantic Quarterly (1903) that praised the accomplishments of African Americans and offered views on how to improve race relations. A campaign to remove Bassett from the faculty was thwarted by a vote of support for Bassett from the University's Board of Trustees on Dec. 2, 1903. The collection contains essays, articles, clippings, correspondence, reminiscences, and other published and unpublished matter including Bassett's article, Stirring Up the Fires of Race Antipathy (1903); a scrapbook, 1903-1904, kept by Trinity College officials with newspaper clippings documenting national coverage the case received; copies of letters by Theodore Roosevelt to Owen Wister (1906) commenting on the case and on Trinity; manuscripts of My Recollections of the Bassett Trial, by Robert Lee Durham (1936), The Bassett Affair: A Play in Six Acts, by Baird Straughan (1975), and Crisis at Trinity a play by John Merritt (1989); lists of related materials in other collections; various shorter articles and speeches including comments by Richard L. Watson and an address to the Academic Council by Terry Sanford; and materials from the centennial celebration of the Bassett Affair, collected by University Archives staff. English.