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CAMPUS MIRROR
3
I)r. I. F. Davidson
Students, faculty and staff returning
from vacation the morning of January
2 were deeply saddened by the news that
Dr. Irville Fay Davidson who had gone to
New Orleans for his vacation was dead.
It was learned later that he had been
taken ill the next day after he regis
tered at the Hotel Monteleone, in New
Orleans, was removed to Baptist Hos
pital there December 24, developed
pneumonia, and died December 27.
President Read had had a telephone
conversation with one of Dr. Davidson’s
sons in Syracuse, New York, who re
ferred her to the account of the death
in the New York Times for December 29
which not a person on the campus had
noticed.
Letters from the Staff to Hotel Mon
teleone and the Baptist Hospital brought
kindly replies. We here quote direct from
the account of his illness received by re
quest from the physician who attended
him in Baptist Hospital in New Or
leans:
“I attended Mr. Davidson in his last
illness. He became ill at the Monteleone
Hotel on the 24th of December and was
moved to the Baptist Hospital at once.
“He had lobar pneumonia, type 3,
which is extremely virulent and at his
age almost always fatal. He was given
every consideration and all modern the
rapeutic aids including chemotherapy
and pneumococcic serum. His condition
was considered serious from the begin
ning. It would be difficult to say if he
developed a cold during his journey.
“It was obvious that he was a gentle
man of high type and erudition.”
Dr. Davidson was a native of Wey
mouth, Massachusetts, his home was at
Annandale-on-Hudson, New Aork, and
he often spent his summer vacations on
the Maine Coast. He had his A. B. de
gree from Harvard in 1897 and A. M.
degree from the University of Chicago
in 1908. From St. Stephens College he
had an A. M. degree in 1907 and an L.
H. 1). degree in 1914. He had had ex
tensive foreign travel and study in his
special field of classic languages, and lit
erature, especially in Italy and Greece.
His long experience as a teacher in
cluded the following: St. Thomas Hall
at Holly Springs. Mississippi. 1897-98;
Mt. Pleasant Military Academy, Ossi
ning, New A <>rk. and Lakewood i New
Jersey ) School. 1900-1904. He had joined
St. Sephens College (now Bard) as an
instru< tor in Latin and Greek in 1898,
was made professor there in 1913. -cry
ing also a> Dean 1918-1923, and a- act
ing president in 1919. He was retired
last year.
He had membership in the Classical
Association of the Atlantic States, in the
American Philological Association, in
DR. IRVILLE FAY DAVIDSON
The American Association of University
Professors, and in the Appalachian
Mountains Club.
Students of the affiliated system in the
graduate schools and Morehouse and
Spelman Colleges, though they had his
course only from mid-September until
December 21, 1940, were soon aware
that they had unusual opportunity in
their association with this man.
STUDENT OPINION
“He certainly knows his stuff and a
great deal besides” was one student’s re
mark.
He had unlimited patience in making
any matter clear and vast stores of ex
perience from study, travel, and observa
tion from which he drew skillfully. His
class-room manner was always that of
one in a pleasant conversation. His brief
pointed questions never startled one, but,
instead, opened the understanding of the
class and stimulated interest in fields of
classic literature and ancient history
and in modern problems or in any in
terest which fitted into the historical or
literary history. His daily class periods
were a continuous Renaissance to his
students.
Activities of Miss Toomer
Mi-- Kathryn Toomer. a June grad
uate of this year, visited the campus for
a short time on November 21. at which
time she told a few' of her friends of
some <>f her activities in the community
about Baxley, where she is now teaching.
She directs Home Economics activities,
teaches eighth grade science, and coaches
basketball .
This is the first year that her school
has hail a Home Economies Department,
and upon Mi-- roomer lay the responsi-
Negro \ outli at the
Crossways
The "Negro A outh At the Crossways."
a report by Dr. E. Franklin Frazier to
the American A outh Commission of the
American Council on Education, is one
of a series of regional inquiries into
Negro personality development. It is of
particular interest because it deals with
a sectional phase of the Negro youth
problem probably least familiar to the
general public.
The “crossways” are the borderlands
between the Old South and the A ankee
North. Here the Negro has fled the ves
tigial remnants of rural Southern feud
alism and has become largely urban
ized with greater security and opportun
ity. He is still denied certain rights, but
caste restrictions are less rigid and race
antipathies less violent than in the Old
South. Besides the District of Columbia,
the border region includes Delaware,
Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, and
Missouri—those regions which became
differentiated from the Old South dur
ing the spread of the cotton culture.
Since the most important differentia
tion between the Old South and the
“crossways” is the greater urbanization
of Negroes in the latter region, the cities
of Washington and Louisville were se
lected for this study.
“Negro Youth At the Crossways" gives
us a motion picture of the lives of Negro
youth in these two representative cities
through interviews with many typical
representatives of both sexes and all
classes of young people and their par
ents. These studies were made from both
the psychological and sociological view
points, with the accent on the latter.
Every phase of life, from ambition to
sex, has been covered.
“Negro Youth At the Crossw'ays” does
not attempt to suggest remedies for the
handicaps of youth in the transition be
tween two types of civilization, but it
offers fresh and valuable data on the
problem of Negro youth. It helps shed
light on today s general youth problem.
bility of building up the equipment, and
organizing the curriculum. The Parent-
I eachers Association raised seventy-nine
dollars for the new department, with
which they bought some material and
began payment on a stove. Two sewing-
machines were given to them by members
of the community. Because her students
were unable to buy materials to sew up
on. she suggested that they make shoe
bags out of eroker sacks. 1 hese were
attractive a- well a- serviceable after
they had been bound with colored bias
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