CLEMSON, S.C.

When the final whistle blew, the scoreboard in Death Valley read Clemson 54, South Carolina State 0, but on this Saturday in late September, there was more than a football game being played.

It wasn’t just a game, it was history with bloodlines. There were friends and fellowship, some rich and some poor, and, most importantly, there was Clemson University, a public land-grant school creating opportunities to become more diverse academically and athletically by establishing a partnership on more than one front with a historically Black college.

It was the first meeting between Clemson and its sister school from Orangeburg, S.C., which is only in existence because of the state’s flagship university’s inability to diversify enrollment over a century ago.

“This game displays racial good will for the state,” said Dr. Louis Lynn, a Clemson trustee. “We are not where we need to be yet with interracial relations, but the game allowed us to make contacts within the two universities. In America there is no better ice-breaker than a college football game.”

The History

Founded as a land-grant college in 1889 following the passage of the Morrill Act (1862), Clemson’s mission was to establish a “high seminary of learning” through its historical land-grant responsibilities of teaching, research and extended public service.

But this education was only to be obtained by Whites. And, with the passing of the Second Morrill Act (1890), Clemson like all other existing land grant colleges, was ordered to make no distinctions in race for admission purposes. If they did discriminate, the state of South Carolina, like many other southern states, would be forced by legislation to offer equal opportunity to Black students and open a land-grant funded university.

Established in 1896, South Carolina State University has shared nearly the same mission statement as its sister school, Clemson, but for the Black community, which represents nearly 29 percent of the state’s 4.5 million residents. Over 16 percent more Blacks live in the state of South Carolina than the national average. Only five other states have more Blacks than the Palmetto state.