Project E-Quality, 1968-74

By: Seth Goddeyne

            In the 1950s, as the civil rights movement grew exponentially in the American South, it was considered a remote concern in places like Fargo-Moorhead, where a minority population barely existed.  Still, the idea of true equality for all peoples was evolving in the country’s more progressive institutions, including colleges and universities.  The idea geminated at Moorhead State College in early 1968, when, out of a total population of 4,200 students, only seven African Americans, sixteen Native Americans, five Mexican Americans, and forty foreign students were in the school’s classrooms. 

           The mainspring of the plan to enroll more minorities was driven by President John Neumaier, whose strong desire to combat prejudice and promote universal equality was born in his memories of being a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany.  With a group of advisors drawn from the administration, faculty and a few community leaders, Neumaier drew a recruitment plan that was called “Project E-Quality,” a program designed not only to enroll minority students but provide financial and emotional support to them during their time at MSC.

Gregory Reed, one of the first fifty Project E-Q students, Fall, 1968

           The initial reception to the program was not necessarily popular; several business leaders in Moorhead voiced concern that this would not help the school or the community.  But Neumaier took the issue very seriously, insisting that “we can no longer afford to insulate ourselves and our students from what will very likely be a dominating challenge to moral and social leadership in America for the rest of our lives.”  Moreover, he regarded the project as beneficial not only to the minority students recruited, but to traditional students (and faculty), who could learn about inequality.

            Project E-Quality (nicknamed E-Q) enrolled several students with small scholarships in the Fall 1968 semester.  Funding for the scholarships was raised by donations from faculty members and administrators (including Neumaier and Roland Dille), the Student Senate, the Alumni Association, local churches, the local American Legion, and various citizens in Moorhead and Fargo.  By March 1969, a total of $17,600 had been raised for the program.

            Project director Lois C. Selberg stated that the initial goals for the semester were to provide opportunity to those whose “poverty, class, environment, and color” had made a college education nearly impossible to attain; to provide an opportunity for white students who lacked understanding of minority groups to interact with minorities on a face-to-face basis; and to stimulate education on race relations within a community.

            Fifty students were initially admitted to the program: 35 African Americans, eight Native Americans, and seven Mexican Americans.   Some faculty volunteered time to provide tutoring to help students excel in classes.  Seminars and discussion panels were created in an effort to educate people about minority groups.   A Cultural Exchange Center was established as a social site.

            But while Project E-Q was succeeding in the classroom, it sparked controversy in the larger community – with some complaining that the funding and extra tutoring constituted “discrimination against the local students who received no such attention.”   As more minority students came to the campus, some white students expressed fear for their safety.  One student complained that had he been “born colored living in a Minneapolis ghetto” he could have received his education for free.  A group of community leaders complained to the Student Senate president about the group’s support of E-Q, and the Fargo Forum denounced the “importation of 150 Negro freshmen.”

Lois Selberg, director of Project E-Q

            Tensions grew into an ugly confrontation on April 17, 1969 in the lobby of Snarr Hall, when a disagreement over a pizza delivery resulted in six black students and about twenty white students nearly came to blows.  One of the black students produced a pistol and fired a blank cartridge toward the floor to clear the room.  The confrontation was over, but the following day, three of the black students were arrested and charged with aggravated assault; they were initially sentenced to jail terms but, because the pistol had contained no live ammunition, the sentences were suspended.  

             A second incident occurred soon after when a black student was shot at four times while driving in the community after a date with a white female.  He was not injured, but the incidents raised the issue of safety for the minority students. At a subsequent meeting with administrators they discussed multiple incidents in which they felt threatened by other students.  Fortunately, tensions cooled after the second incident.

            In the end, the possible violence was surpassed by the success of the program.   Twenty-two of the original fifty E-Q students graduated in 1972 (MSC’s overall student graduation rate after four years was 50% at the time), and an additional fifteen left after their first two years for jobs or other schools.  Roland Dille, by then the president of MSC, could rightfully say that these brave students had endured adversity to obtain the college education that would have eluded them without the program.   In 1974, Project E-Quality was absorbed into the Office of Student Activities; by then it was no longer needed -- it had laid the groundwork  for greater diversity, not only at Moorhead State, but in the F-M community.  It was the combined effort of the students as well as the effectiveness of the various Project E-Quality programs that led to its success. “Given a chance to confront human beings on human terms,” remarked one student after attending a Project E-Quality seminar, “color ends, people begin.”