Student Commission for the Admission of Negroes (SCAN) Scrapbook

In 1948, a student group called SCAN, or Student Committee for the Admission of Negroes, formed, for the purpose of urging the university administration to admit African Americans to the university's undergraduate divisions (African Americans were admitted as undergraduates beginning in the Fall of 1952). During 1948 and 1949, SCAN sponsored rallies and educational programs, and sponsored a student referendum on the issue of Negro admissions which showed that a large majority of Washington University students were in favor of admitting African Americans as undergraduate students.

University Archives has in its collection a scrapbook which documents many of SCAN's activities; portions of it have been digitized and are presented here. The complete collection and scrapbook may be viewed in University Archives.

Special thanks to Bob Lyner, of Digital Preservation, for his assistance with digitizing the scrapbook.

Selection of scrapbook pages:

April 1949: Flyer announcing a roundtable discussion on undergraduate admission of African Americans, with a letter to the editor of Student Life.

March 22, 1949: Announcement that all the university's graduate divisions would now be open to African Americans.

April 29, 1949: Student Life editorial: "Don't Vote".

May 2, 1949: Story in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Washington U. Southern Students Vote 2 to 1 for Admitting Negroes"

Download the 16 page SCAN Scrapbook