The Enfields & Hargrave's political incorrectness

Hargrave's famed Camden Rifles (photo courtesy of HMA)

I began my Hargrave career in summer school, 1961, between my sophomore and junior years. Prior to that, I attended a public high school (Thomas Jefferson; "TJ") with a voluntary JROTC program. Hargrave's military aspect was a cakewalk compared to TJ's. We had to memorize FM 22-5 (Drill & Ceremonies), our boots had to have a high gloss spit shine every day, we marched every day and the entire corp learned precision marching. In fact, during the 1st 6 months of our freshman year, we were all "rats", and treated accordingly.

One of the things all the cadets at TJ learned (in addition to regular marching and the normal rifle commands) was special drill/silent drill; there was an annual competition between companies. We used Enfields. While a drill team can open the bolt of an M-1 with a snappy looking Karate chop, it doesn't have the flare of grabbing the bolt of an Enfield, and flipping it around.

Several years prior to my arrival at H, the Camden Rifles precision team had been disbanded due to lack of interest and lack of someone who could teach the moves. I reinstituted the CR's with little initial enthusiasm/support from the school. (My mother made our guidon, as the school wouldn't spring for it!)

Leon Rue "diplomatically" states, "there was a period when the government took back the Enfields after the school dropped out of the Junior ROTC program," which makes it sound as though this was some sort of decision based on H's military program. It wasn't; here's what happened:

Hargrave was (is) a Southern Baptist school. Many African Americans are Southern Baptist, so H wanted to appear to be willing to accept Black students while not actually accepting them. My senior year I was appointed to the newly-created Battalion Staff position of Assistant to the Commandant (Col. Todd). One of my duties was to show prospective cadets and their parents around the campus. The tours always started with my being called to Col. Cosby's office.

On those rare occassions when the prospects were African American, Col. Cosby would always throw into the conversation that I was Jewish. This was obviously a poor attempt on his part to try to say, "See, we're willing to accept anyone." The tour would always end up in his office, and he would say, "Your son will be living on a barracks with 40 White boys, mostly Southerners. We won't be able to guarantee your son's safety, and if he enrolls at Hargrave, you and he will have to sign a waiver of liability."

Apparently the tactic always worked; when I graduated in 1963, there were, and never had been, Black students at HMA.

The Feds had already decreed that public schools must integrate, but they could not mandate that to private schools. So they came out with a policy which stated that if a school did not integrate, it would lose all Federal funding--which included those Enfields. H refused to integrate, so the Feds took back the Enfields. As Leon states, a "benefactor" paid for rifles for the school.

I also went to the University of Richmond, which also refused to integrate, and lost Federal funding. U of R also had a benefactor. E. Claiborne Robbins, Sr. donated $50 million to the school when the Feds split.

What finally caused schools like H and Richmond to integrate?

It was not that they finally got a sense of social justice; it was because of athletics. The integrated public school teams were whipping the heck out of private school teams in football, basketball, track, etc., so integration became a necessity in order to be competitive.

I wonder: What percentage of the varsity athletes at H are Black? What percentage of the cadet corp not engaged in varsity atheletics is Black?

Marc Axel
marc.axel@verizon.net
Class of '63