Application to Summer Music Institute at Black Mountain College for Alma Stone, 1944

The first African-American student at Black Mountain College, Alma Stone attended the summer session in 1944. The school had hotly debated the issue of admitting African-Americans since the early 1930s.

Courtesy of Western Regional Archives, a branch of the North Carolina State Archives

Photo, Faculty at Summer Institute, 1946

Painters Jacob Lawrence and his wife, Gwendolyn Knight, came to Black Mountain for the summer Art Institute in 1946. Albers offered Jacob the position of teaching for ten weeks, and Gwendolyn studied painting under Jean Varda.

Courtesy of Western Regional Archives, a branch of the North Carolina State Archives

Notes, “No Negroes at Black Mountain,” by John Andrew Rice, no date

In these undated notes, John Andrew Rice reflects on why, during his tenure as the College's Rector, he did not allow African-Americans on staff or as students.

John Andrew Rice Papers, Appalachian State University