The Mission of the College

George Mason College administrators were hostile toward civil rights investigations. College Advisory Committee members, legal counsel A. Hugo Blankingship, and Chancellor of GMC Lorin Thompson used the same playbook when attacking the legitimacy of reports of racism at the college. This playbook emphasized that the institution's mission was only to confer degrees and attacked the reports as illegitimate and unsubstantial.

Chancellor Thompson took the lead in expressing doubt that his school should ensure that Black people in Northern Virginia attend a college in Fairfax. Thompson’s letters to HEW investigator Eloise Severinson revealed his narrow definition of the “community” GMC was to serve. On the topic of Black undergraduate recruitment, Severinson pushed Thompson to take “immediate” steps to transform the campus. Thompson responded with evasive answers citing, for example, that the college's mission was simply to "develop into a strong regional university" and its applicant pool naturally came from surrounding “white…high income” areas.[1]

Moreover, Thompson believed that creating a “strong” university did not entail "educat[ing] for racial or other identifiable groups" or supporting “remedial” programs like Upward Bound, which “sap[ped] resources of the College.”[2] After the George Mason College’s Campus Ministry Association contacted Thompson in February 1971 with a request to discuss "racial inclusion at GMC,” he responded saying that “there seems to be a great deal of confusion throughout Northern Virginia and among many groups as to the primary mission of the college and the manner in which it must set its priorities in order to make its contribution.” He similarly stated that the FCHR “misunderstand the role of an educational institution" which was not to "proselite[sic], at public expense, any particular segment of the population."  Thompson's 12-page response to allegations of racism at GMC focused on explaining the "purpose of George Mason College." Thompson summed up GMC's efforts at racial inclusion by stating that "every effort is made to follow the [1964 Civil Rights] Act within the educational mission of the College.”[3]

The second way school administrators dismissed reports of racism at the college was to attack such findings as unsubstantiated. This strategy was used against internal and external critics. When in 1969 William H. McFarlane, the Humanities Department Chairman, called for “positive steps to overcome the obvious deficiency” in recruiting Black students, Director of Admissions Louis Aebischer derided McFarlane for expressing “alarming" claims and lodging “irresponsible” protests. Aebischer offered a rebuttal, as well. GMC had “doubled” the number of Black students admitted to the college, he announced, up from two to five in 1969.[4] 

Aebischer's statistics did not impress the Fairfax Council on Human Relations.  On January 12, 1971, it released a report criticizing George Mason College for its “systematic exclusion of black persons,” both as faculty and students.[5] Upon receiving an advanced copy of this rebuke, Chancellor Thompson quickly wrote to the Advisory Committee requesting advice. Thompson hoped to “defer any comments” until “we have had an opportunity to discuss our strategy.”[6]

At an Advisory Committee meeting on February 9, 1971, Thompson assured fellow administrators that the report contained no credible information and the college had committed no serious errors. Thompson and the Advisory Committee debated whether they should “let this matter continue as is” or issue a statement “affirming George Mason is an open university.” Thompson believed GMC should simply “stand on our record.” Advisory Committee member Arthur Arundel was confident that “this issue is not worth the space or time of this committee; our position is dead right and we are in the clear.” No further discussion of the FCHR report ensued.[7] The Advisory Committee's view of the “educational needs of the community" did not include the future of hundreds of college-bound Black high school students in Northern Virginia.[8]

Dean Robert C. Krug was also in agreement that the FCHR report was “incredibly shallow.” He was of the “firm opinion” that “George Mason College should not accord to the document the dignity of consideration.” Thompson was then interviewed in the Washington Post and quoted as saying that he and his leadership circle felt that the FCHR was “light on facts, heavy on hearsay.” Thompson also stated that the FCHR report was a "disservice to the College and to the people in Northern Virginia."[9]

It is not clear if GMC issued a formal comment on the FCHR report, but a draft statement survives in Chancellor Thompson’s papers. The college may have considered releasing it after William Durland of the FCHR appeared on television during WETA Channel 26's 6:00pm “Newsroom” (12 January 1971) program to detail “discrimination at George Mason College"; or when the FCHR held a public meeting on January 20, 1971 for Fairfax residents to discuss the report.[10] GMC's draft statement dismissed FCHR as an uninformed “private group" parroting the complaints of “a dissenting minority” of faculty and students who made allegations about "an indefinable something called "attitude.'"[11]

George Mason College faced so many civil rights investigations that its administrators began to recycle public statements defending the institution. Rather than draft a new refutation of the Virginia State Advisory Committee report in July 1971, Chancellor Thompson made minor alterations to GMC’s draft comment on a previous Fairfax Council on Human Relations report. Thompson repeated exact phrases, such as his claim that the VSAC report focused on “an indefinable something called ‘attitude,’” but made sure to replace “Council of Human Relations” with a new target, the “U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.”[12]

College administrators reacted to the Virginia State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights in a similar manner as they did the Fairfax Council on Human Relations – attacking the VSAC’s authority and credibility. GMC resisted VSAC plans to hold a public hearing at Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax on April 13, 1971. The forum gave GMC administrators and community members the chance to provide public comments on race at the college. GMC may have worried that the US Commission on Civil Rights would initiate a federal case in court.  Thus, GMC lawyer A. Hugo Blankingship formally responded to the VSAC. This legal step was not taken in previous civil rights investigations, namely the Rotch Report and the Fairfax Council on Human Relations report, which had no federal backing.[13]

College administrators were probably encouraged by their counsel A. Hugo Blankingship to undermine the legitimacy of the VSAC investigation by calling into question the legality of the April 13, 1971 public forum. Blankingship wrote to David Sprunt, Chairman of the Virginia State Advisory Committee, outlining GMC’s concerns with the process. Blankingship explained that he was “unable to find any specific authority in the enabling legislation which authorizes your Committee to hold such a hearing.” For his part, Thompson claimed that the VSAC had no "standing to oversee the activities of the college which is a state chartered institution.” Advisory Committee member Harrison Mann also informed UVA Rector Joseph McConnel that the VSAC had “no legal authority to hold a hearing or make a report.”[14] More could be learned about GMC’s legal handling of civil rights investigations, but the archive folder of official correspondence between the college and its attorney, A. Hugo Blankingship, from 1966-1973 is restricted in the George Mason University Archives & Special Collections.

In addition to questioning the Virginia State Advisory Committee’s authority, GMC administrators portrayed the VSAC as acting in bad faith. Advisory Committee member Harrison Mann was incensed by the VSAC's published report, George Mason College: For All the People? In July 1971, Mann released a memo stating that this published document was “one of the most blatant pieces of propaganda I have ever seen.” The VSAC “zealots” had held a “kangaroo court” on April 13, 1971, he protested, which “deliberately denied the administrators of George Mason College their civil rights.” In a separate letter to UVA Rector McConnel, Mann spoke for Advisory Committee colleagues when he explained that “our board is fed up with the stuff being handed out by these civil rights fanatics.” Not to be outdone, GMC counsel A. Hugo Blankingship called VSAC Chairman David Sprunt a “blackmailer” who made an unspecified “veiled threat” against the college and claimed that the VSAC hearing was "rigged with adversary intentions."[15]

Thompson was ready to respond to the VSAC controversy when Virginia Governor Linwood Holton requested the GMC Chancellor's “comments on the recent publication of the Virginia State Advisory Committee" in August 1971.[16] Thompson wrote a response to Holton which disparaged the VSAC as a "surreptitious" group that leveled "attacks . . .  and distort[ed] facts by innuendos." Thompson complained that the VSAC's tactics, and, ironically, their allegations, were “similar in many respects to the . . .  Compliance Division of HEW.”[17] Thompson may have been emboldened by a letter he received from an associate, B.L. Miller of Bethesda, Maryland, in July of 1971. After reading the VSAC report, Miller told Thompson: “I was damn near as angry as you must have been. Don’t let them stampede you.”[18] 

The prevailing rhetorical strategy of GMC administrators was to blame others for institutional problems.  Perspective Black students, particularly athletes, were continually faulted for not meeting college entrance requirements.[19] The George Mason College Athletic Council, however, began to question such thinking in 1971.[20] Director of Athletics Raymond H. Spuhler expressed his frustration at an Athletic Council meeting that “the College’s rigid adherence to the entrance criteria of both college board scores and class ranking” had created “many cases in which athletes, several of them Black, had applied and been turned down with sufficient college board scores but with class rankings a few percentiles below the requirement.” The Athletic Council then sent a proposal to Chancellor Thompson, explaining that the council had been “concerned for some time” that “black athletes have failed to be accepted to our college, even though their academic and intellectual levels appeared satisfactory to us." The Athletic Council suggested Thompson include additional evaluation tools in GMC's admission process, such as the ACT test, which were utilized by “other colleges of this state" to add flexibility to admissions standards when an applicant met one of GMC’s two strict admission requirements – 60^th percentile in class rank and over 900 SAT score – but not the other.[21] The case of Black athletes was a crucial example of the disconnect between the GMC administration and the realities Black students faced. GMC may not have officially forbidden Black student enrollment, but its admissions policies did them no favors.

By Anthony Guidone

[1] Eloise Severinson to Lorin A. Thompson, 2 July 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. Thompson’s recruitment plan included targeting high school juniors and seniors during the 1971-1972 school year. Severinson felt Thompson’s “time-table for action does cause serious concern,” as recruited students would not be eligible for college admission until 1972 or 1973.

[2] Answers & Comments on Truro Church Hearing – Civil Rights Commission, April 13, 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 11, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. GMC administrators also questioned why the school should be forced to "use its staff and resources to correct failures of the high schools."

[3] George Mason College Advisory Board Meeting Minutes, 20 October 1970, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 3, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Campus Ministry Association to Lorin A. Thompson, 4 February 1971, & Lorin A. Thompson to Campus Ministry Association, 9 February 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Lorin A. Thompson to David W. Sprunt, 25 March 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Untitled and undated document regarding the Fairfax Council for Human Relations, 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. Ironically, GMC's clear violations of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act gave Thompson an easy solution to fixate on and slowed changes in other areas, namely recruiting Black students and hiring Black recruiters. GMC immediately ceased offering the offending scholarship and using the segregated Country Club of Fairfax but did not hire a full-time recruiter for minority students until 1974 after Chancellor Thompson retired. GMC hired Andrew Evans as the first minority recruiter at George Mason in the Spring of 1974. See Broadside vol. 15, no. 1, September 3, 1974, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.; Misha Griffith and Robert Vay, “Andrew Evans Oral History Interview Segment,” George Mason University Oral History Program, accessed August 5, 2021, http://oralhistory.gmu.edu/items/show/4.

[4] Louis Aebischer to Lorin A. Thompson, 22 September 1969, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 13, Folder 6, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[5] Fairfax County Council on Human Relations – Final Report of the Special Committee on George Mason College, January 12, 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 3, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[6] William R. Durland to Lorin A. Thompson, 8 January 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Lorin A. Thompson to GMC Advisory Board, 11 January 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[7] George Mason College Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes, 9 February 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 3, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[8] James M. Snyder, Prepared Statement to the Virginia State Advisory Committee, April 13, 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 11, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. In the spring of 1971, there were approximately 350 college-bound Black high schoolers within commuting distance of GMC.

[9] Robert C. Krug to Lorin A. Thompson, 13 January 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Washington Post, January 13, 1971; Lorin A. Thompson to William R. Durland, 3 February 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[10] The Evening Star, January 12, 1971; Northern Virginia Sun, January 13, 1971, January 16, 1971, January 18, 1971, January 21, 1971, January 29, 1971, & February 11, 1971; Washington Post, January 13, 1971; Virginia Sentinel, January 14, 1971, January 28, 1971.

[11] Untitled and undated document regarding the Fairfax Council for Human Relations, 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[12] For Release Simultaneously with the Report of the Virginia State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 21 July 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Untitled and undated document regarding the Fairfax Council for Human Relations, 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[13] A. Hugo Blankingship to Lorin A. Thompson, 23 April 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 3, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; A. Hugo Blankingship to David Sprunt, 23 April, 1971, David Sprunt to A. Hugo Blankingship, 4 May 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. HEW investigators did make it clear that if GMC did not correct its Title VI violations, the school could “lose $54,000 in Federal scholarship funds.” See The Evening Star, October 10, 1970. 

[14] For Release Simultaneously with the Report of the Virginia State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 21 July 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Harrison Mann to Joseph McConnel, 27 July 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; A. Hugo Blankingship to David W. Sprunt, 23 April 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 3, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[15] Memo from Harrison Mann, 21 July 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; Harrison Mann to Joseph McConnel, 27 July 1971, John C. Wood Papers, Box 1, Folder 2, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University; David W. Sprunt to A. Hugo Blankingship, 4 May 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. Blankingship’s comments were written as marginalia on a copy Sprunt’s response to Blankingship’s letter detailing GMC's gripes with the VSAC hearing. Sprunt, on Blankingship’s contention that Chancellor Thompson was “forced” to attend the meeting, revealed that Thompson understood he was not compelled to attend for “[Thompson] himself conjectured that if he decided not to appear, it might be interpreted as a ‘cop-out’ (his term).” Sprunt stated he was “dismayed” at how Blankingship “misunderstood” the matter. Blankingship then quipped, “how can a blackmailer be dismayed?” Blankingship also claimed the VSAC hearing was "rigged with adversary intentions."

[16] Linwood Holton to Lorin A. Thompson, 3 August 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[17] Lorin A. Thompson to Linwood Holton, 6 August 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 14, Folder 8, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[18] B.L. Miller to Lorin A. Thompson, 28 July 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3: Thompson, Box 12, Folder 1, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.

[19] Prepared Statement, April 13, 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3: Thompson, Box 14, Folder 11, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. On Black athletes, GMC administrators claimed that "in at least 95% of the cases the [Black] athletes did not meet the College entrance requirements. The remaining 5% decided to go elsewhere."

[20] The eight-member committee included Director of Athletics Raymond H. Spuhler, two Professors, and two students.

[21] James L. Jackson to Lorin A. Thompson, 28 January 1971 & 10 February 1971, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 4, Folder 9, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University. Northern Virginia High School guidance counselors interviewed by the Fairfax Council on Human Relations identified Mason’s use of the SAT score as problematic. GMC's score threshold was higher than other Virginia institutions and the test was “totally unreliable” and could exclude “otherwise qualified black and whites.” The GMC Athletic Council also pointed out the cultural subjectivity of SAT scores. Summary of Committee Interview with Local High School Guidance Counselors, Office of the President Records, Series 3, Box 7, Folder 4, Special Collections Research Center, University Libraries, George Mason University.