Wake Forest Wants to Strike `Whites-Only' Clause

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 16, 1999

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Attorneys for Wake Forest University here have asked a court to strike recently discovered a "Whites-only" clause from a scholarship for medical students established nearly four decades ago.

"This is certainly an anachronism," Mark Wright, a spokesman for Wake Forest University School of Medicine, says of the 38-year-old agreement that established the Dr. Hillory M. Wilder Scholarship Fund.

The scholarship was funded by Kenneth and Celeste Wilder Blake, who left part of their estate to the university to honor Celeste's father and help pay the way for "capable and earnest young men and women of the White race."

University officials say no minority has ever been denied a scholarship because of the restriction. The Blake's gift generates $18,000 to $26,000 a year in aid for students. The school has been unable to locate any of the Blake's heirs.

But school lawyers last month filed a petition in Superior Court here seeking to eliminate the race restriction, calling it "impossible, inappropriate and impracticable." They also note it would violate the Civil Rights Act.