Incident in the Dormitory
Dr Henry Hamilton, Professor of Agricultural Economics, lived in Buckman Hall as a student. He
recalls a terrible incident that occurred in Buckman Hall in the spring of 1917, one that reveals some of the long and fraught racial history of the university:
“There was a little black boy that was killed in the dormitories. The black women would come to the dormitories to pick up the wash for the boys. I think that they did your week’s wash for thirty-five cents; I’m not sure. At any rate, one of the little boys came to the room of a man, a student, to get his wash. He told him to go away and come back later. Well, the little boy went away and came back in about ten minutes. The student had a gun under his pillow. He intended to shoot over the little boy’s head, but shot him in the temple and killed him. Well, the black people went on strike. I believe it was the dean of the college that put out word that they needed some help over on the farm. I went over to help on the farm while they were out on strike. After that, I was on call about anytime that they needed me on the farm, but I never did do a great deal of work on the farm, some, but not a great deal. I guess I didn’t do any after my junior year. It was in my sophomore year that I did most of it.” (7)