Harding University

Foundation James A. Harding Harding College was founded in Morrilton, Arkansas , in April 1924 after the merging of two separate colleges: Arkansas Christian College of Morrilton, Arkansas, and Harper College of Harper, Kansas . It was named after James A. Harding , a minister and educator associated with Churches of Christ. [ 6 ] After Galloway Female College merged with Hendrix College in 1933, Harding College purchased Galloway's Searcy, Arkansas campus for a fraction of its estimated value and moved there in 1934. [ 7 ]

Harding University first advocated pacifism and political disengagement, in line with its own founding influences like James A. Harding and David Lipscomb as well as with wider trends in many other evangelical Christian movements during late 19th- and early 20th-century America. This trajectory shifted during the Cold War, however. Harding became involved in the production of a series of animated cartoons extolling the virtues of free-market capitalism. This series, including " Make Mine Freedom " (1948) as well as "Meet King Joe" (1949), were all produced by John Sutherland Productions as part of a concerted campaign to fight against the threats of communism at the beginning of the Cold War using popular media. Funding came from Alfred P. Sloan , the major figure at General Motors Corporation . The animations contrast mainstream American values with the values of Soviet communism . [ 8 ] The initiative represented a central concern of Harding president George S. Benson , who believed that fighting socialism was a moral imperative.

Dr George S Benson, president of Harding College, in 1962 Early in his career, President Benson established the National Education Program to advocate the principles of belief in God, the constitution, and free enterprise, within an "Americanism" program. The NEP coordinated speaking engagements and produced and distributed reprints of Benson's speeches and newspaper columns, short films by a former Walt Disney employee, and other media. This program attracted many donations to Harding, including from Boeing and Gulf Oil. The NEP was initially part of the school's education department, and later the history department, where it was intertwined with the American Studies Program. Clifton Ganus Jr. and James D. Bales were also heavily involved. NEP materials were used nationwide by groups such as the U.S. armed forces, public schools, colleges and universities, chapters of the American Legion, and local chambers of commerce. Some uses became controversial: Some companies required their employees to attend NEP-sponsored seminars and enclosed copies of Benson's lectures with their paychecks in hopes of addressing perceived restlessness. The Fulbright Memorandum of June 1961 raised concerns about use of NEP materials in the military. The NEP was charged with being a "Radical Right" organization in the 1964 book Danger on the Right by Arnold Forster and Benjamin R. Epstein of the Anti-Defamation League , which Bales responded to in his 1965 book Americanism under Fire . The close relationship between Harding and the NEP delayed the college's accreditation until 1954 when the school incorporated it as a separate entity, although Benson, Ganus, and Bales continued their involvement and the NEP board was nearly identical to the college's. In the 1970s, the program dwindled in notoriety and moved to Oklahoma Christian College . [ 9 ] The American Studies Institute continues as a legacy of this program. [ 6 ]

Segregation During the era of segregation in the United States , the school remained racially segregated for most of the tenure of president George S. Benson , who defended Harding's delay in integrating. Benson believed Black people were inferior because they fell under the Curse of Ham . [ 10 ] : 85 In 1957, student body president Bill Floyd circulated a "statement of attitude" that Harding was ready to integrate, and it was signed by over 75% of the students, faculty, and staff of the college. In response Benson made an address entitled "Harding College and the Colored Problem", in which he characterized the idea of integration as youthful idealism, and insisted that students should defer to the judgment of older people with more experience, such as the Harding board of trustees. He went further, stating that Black people were far better off in the US than in other countries, and that integration would result in destruction of property, the spread of venereal diseases, and increased pregnancies. He also stated that mixed marriages would lead to broken homes and a rise in crime. [ 11 ] Benson maintained that mixing of the races was against the divine order. In 1953, Norman Adamson became the first black person accepted to Harding. However, when administrators learned he was black he was denied admission. [ 10 ] : 71 In 1963, three black students were admitted to the Searcy campus, making Harding the second private institution in Arkansas to admit black people. [ 11 ] In a 2012 article, it was suggested that this decision was motivated by expectation that the coming Civil Rights Act would require "Harding to desegregate to continue receiving federal funds", [ 11 ] but contemporary sources make no mention of this as a consideration: The Arkansas Gazette applauded Harding's "voluntary action" as an "example" for other Arkansas church-related colleges and deserving an "ovation...for the grace with which they have undertaken this social change".