Taking note of the rising tide of nationalism in the world, in 1944 Fisk University's white president, Thomas Elsa Jones, argued that African Americans had an important role to play as American envoys to the new independent states sure to emerge after World War II. Paraphrasing Horace Greeley's famous advice to young men, he said, "For effective living in a world community, the Negro has the dual advantage of being an American and a person who has pigment in his skin. . . . His identification with members of darker races should be advantageous. For the Negro, the slogan should be 'Go south, east, and west'.

The Business of Making Money.

To solve their financial difficulties some colleges and universities purposefully turned their halls into businesses, with the goal of bringing in as many student dollars as possible. This also encouraged abuse of the tax-exempt status of educational...