Project E-Quality:
Project Overview

On April 8, 1968, at a memorial tribute following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., outgoing president of Moorhead State College (MSC) John J. Neumaier gave a speech on racial prejudice and injustice, challenging the student body to overcome them. According to Borsheim and Himmerich, staff writers for the campus newspaper, Neumaier, a refugee from Nazi Germany, "was devoted to making MSU a school where students respected 'the dignity of individual human beings regardless of color . . . or cultural origin.'"

Later that spring, incoming president Roland Dille and Lois Selberg conceived a project to help minority students with higher education, as well as helping to further racial cooperation in the Fargo-Moorhead area. This project "Helping Disadvantaged Minority Students" was what would eventually become the program known as Project E-Quality. The Project was later known as Education Opportunities for Minority Students (EOMS) before being incorporated into the Office of Student Affairs in 1974. Lois Selberg was appointed the first Director of Project E-Quality and a nine-member committee was named. The committee was made up of minority students selected from the three major minority groups on campus: three Black students, three Native American students, and three Hispanic students. Enrollment qualifications were set on par with those of other students, and the initial goal was to have 50 minority students enrolled that fall term.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Library of Congress

Fall of 1968 found 52 minority students enrolled through Project E-Quality. Borsheim and Himmerich note that Project E-Quality students received Educational Opportunity Grants, student loans and work study awards to pay for their tuition and board. In addition the E-Quality fund, which was supported by students, faculty, area service clubs and businesses, provided $350 per student for their personal expenses.

The first years of the Project were undoubtedly the most tumultuous. Each successive year tensions decreased. However, Project E-Quality proved somewhat difficult to manage. As a result  a new steering committee was created to oversee the Project during it's second year.

MSC Students Discuss Civil Rights
from MSC Mystic

In 1971, Project E-Quality was finding its stride. There were over 40 students enrolled in the program. During this time, there were some questions in the student community as to how effective Project E-Quality was in bridging the racial/ethnic gap in the Fargo-Moorhead area. Most, however, agreed that the issue of racial co-existence had to be addressed sooner or later, and better sooner than later. There were a number of articles written on prejudice and similar issues in the Fargo-Moorhead community forcing citizens and students to rethink their position.

By fall term of 1972, several of the area colleges had started participating in programs suited to minority student needs. Moorhead State had half the minority population of college students in the area at that time due to the success of Project E-Quality.

That is not to say that everything was easy. There were some altercations, including one incident involving firearms, and some controversy over a few persons' commitment to the  program. Combined with these issues were the tense atmosphere of the times (the Civil Rights movement and the anti-war movement) and the increasingly difficult financial strains on universities and colleges nationwide.

Due to financial and administrative concerns, Project E-Quality was eventually modified into Education Opportunities for Minority Students (EOMS). Soon after, it was absorbed by Student Affairs and became a more general type of minority scholarship.

Project E-Quality enrolled over 120 students and helped break racial barriers in the community. Seng states that after graduating, many of the students involved in the Project went on to get advanced degrees and had successful careers. A representative list of Project E-Quality student successes includes:

• Randall Bradley received an M.A. in architecture from M.I.T. and started his own design studio in Minneapolis.

• Tom Coley went to law school at Georgetown University.

• Carl Griffin became a co-owner of The Scribe Computer Consulting firm.

• Vince Jackson was employed by Honeywell International.

• Curtis Robinson played bass for Les McCann, a famous jazz musician of the times.

• Dr. Timothy DeForrest Tweedle became known as a Civil Rights leader who served as a missionary in Haiti, an evangelical minister in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, and the West Indies. 

Project E-Quality also helped to jumpstart discussion on important issues that every community must deal with sooner or later. Borsheim and Himmerich wrote:

From 1968 to 1972, [Project E-Quality] students played an active role in changing the prejudicial atmosphere at MSU and in the community through education. Black students offered a class called "A Primer for Honkies" as a way for white students to learn about black culture. One white participant said: "My racism . . . was subtle . . . comments that are always made in the white community . . . so subtle it is a part of you . . . because you grew up in a sheltered area. Given a chance to confront human beings on human terms, color ends, people begin."

Over-all, Project E-Quality was a benefit to the community, as well as to the students it served.

Copyright Minnesota State University Moorhead