Q: What kind of impact do you think your book will have on the Oberlin community as it celebrates its 175th anniversary this year?
Baumann: I chose this story because it was worthy of telling. Not everyone is going to be happy with this book because the evidence is going to say things that some people don’t want to hear. My task was to take the evidence and let it lead to the truth. I try to show the power of relationships that existed within the Oberlin College community and how it was that minority students had to deal with those in terms of creating the gains they sought in terms of their own position within that wider academic community.
I’m hoping that in covering 175 years of Oberlin’s Black education legacy, it will compel others to look at Oberlin in the 21st century. Oberlin has devoted a good bit of its time to contemplating, what I call, its historical navel. The golden period. The story that’s so good and easily told because it was the high point in our commitment to inclusiveness and access and opportunity for minority people, in this case, Black students.
Q: What were some other particular challenges you had writing this book. You mention in the preface that writing a book on Oberlin’s Black educational experience has been your desire for more than a decade?
Baumann: My interest in writing this book began very early on in my career at Oberlin. The college’s Office of Development asked me to produce a four-page brochure on Oberlin’s unique African-American heritage for a fundraising campaign. My predecessor had done the most important article on African-American history (at Oberlin) from 1840-1940 which is cited in my book. But few people have said much about how Oberlin was able to carry out its initial commitment. My book deals with how Oberlin ultimately made the decision in 1835 (to admit Black students), the forces behind it, how it implemented it, how it lost it after 1875 (and) how it reclaims this commitment. As a Caucasian, I didn’t want anybody to think that I was writing the last word. I was preparing a platform, on which others might follow me to tell this larger story.
