Bennett College

conditions in the South, resulted in President Jones being investigated by the FBI and other government agencies. They were concerned about communist and leftist activities, as these groups were politically active in the United States. They ordered him to prohibit the students from protesting. Jones refused.
At his invitation, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt came to the college on March 22, 1945, to meet with an integrated group of schoolchildren from Greensboro. Other visitors to the campus included Benjamin Elijah Mays, former Morehouse College president; poet Robert Frost, and writer James Weldon Johnson. Jones led the college for almost 30 years until he became ill in 1955, when he named Willa B. Player interim president. Player was the first female president of Bennett College, and the first black female president of any accredited four-year college in the United States. During Player's tenure, Bennett became the first black college to be fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. …