Jews and Black Schools

How HBCUs Saved Jewish Scholars from the Nazis

A statue of James E. Shepard, the black founder of North Carolina Central University.

When poring over details of World War II, scholars noticed striking similarities between the Jews in Nazi Germany and blacks in the American South: both experienced racism and terror. Through Jim Crow laws, blacks were legally discriminated against and racially oppressed. In January 1933, Adolph Hitler and the Nazi Party likewise rose to power in Germany through legal and democratic means. Following that, they implemented a systematic campaign of oppression against Germany’s Jewish population. In a matter of months, Jewish intellectuals and educators who held prestigious posts in Germany’s universities faced immediate expulsion. These scholars attempted to flee Germany, and the United States was an attractive option. But gaining entry was not a simple matter.

U.S. officials believed Jewish refugees would weigh down the economy through their dependence on the government for subsistence, so they had to prove they could support themselves once they settled in the country as part of the public charge rule. Many Jews abandoned their homes and livelihoods to escape imprisonment and death, so they had little money. The Nazis largely confiscated Jewish properties and wealth. That left a sizable portion of Jews ineligible for obtaining a U.S. visa. Some Jews managed to secure affidavits from relatives who were U.S. citizens. Their promise of support aided in the application process, but long waiting lists and the overall immigration policy proved an arduous ordeal.

A Jewish couple seeks refugee assistance while a staff member helps them with their immigration papers. Photo courtesy of the JDC Archives.

A few private organizations in the U.S. recognized the problem and intervened. One committee, the American Friends Service, even enlisted individuals with no relation to the Jewish immigrants to commit to supporting them upon their arrival. As part of that effort, the Emergency Committee in Aid of Displaced Foreign Scholars—formed by the Rockefeller Foundation—aimed to place former Jewish academics from German universities at universities in the U.S. on work visas. While that sounded good in theory, American universities were reluctant to hire Jews. Established faculty members at schools throughout the country viewed the refugees as a threat since new salaries had to flow to the incoming scholars. 

College administrators often wielded power to hire these Jewish professors. But the only administrators who did so were the ones at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), who empathized with the Jewish experience of discrimination and oppression. Fifty-three Jewish scholars fleeing Nazi Germany received jobs and work visas from HBCUs like the North Carolina Central University in Durham (NC Central), Tougaloo College in Mississippi, and Howard University in Washington, D.C. Those black institutions, in effect, saved the lives of 53 Jews who had been turned away from white, prestigious schools in the U.S. One noted Jewish scholar, Ernst Manasse, who taught at NC Central from 1939 to his retirement in 1973, said:

“If I had not found a refuge at that time, I would have been arrested, deported to a Nazi concentration camp, tortured and eventually killed.” 

James E. Shepard founded a private school to train students in religion in 1910 but switched to training teachers. In 1925, it became the North Carolina College for Negroes, the first state-funded black liberal arts college in America. The school became a regional university of North Carolina in 1969, the year it adopted the name it now bears: North Carolina Central University.

NC Central’s black president James E. Shepard hired Ernst just before his work visa expired. Shepard also hired three other Jewish refugees. Many of the Jewish professors had never encountered black people, and neither had many students been among Jews, segregation being what it was. But the Jewish professors developed a rapport with the black students based on a shared experience. Being able to witness firsthand what blacks suffered in the South gave the Jewish scholars a window into something with which they were intimately familiar. Through their interaction, an interesting discourse emerged. Some students were struck by the idea that America dispatched troops across the Atlantic to fight Nazis when Jim Crow existed in the South. Professors like Georg Iggers agreed. He was a Jewish refugee from Germany who taught at Philander Smith College, another historically black institution. He said of his experience in the South:

“Racial segregation reminded me a lot of Nazi Germany, except that I wasn’t a victim, the black population was.”

You may also be interested in:

This article appears in 45 People, Places, and Events in Black History You Should Know.

Available from Amazon.com, BN.com, and other retailers.