"THIS PITIABLE REJECTION OF A GREAT OPPORTUNITY": W. E. B. DU BOIS, CLEMENT G. MORGAN, AND THE HARVARD UNIVERSITY GRADUATION OF 1890.

The article presents information on the selection of social activist Clement G. Morgan and academic W. E. B. Du Bois as the first African Americans to deliver speeches at graduation exercises of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in June 1890. The school administration's decision broke a racial barrier in higher education in the U.S., but new evidence provides insight on the amount of controversy that the decision raised within the University. The author explores these documents and discusses the racial tensions and discrimination that existed at Harvard despite their seemingly colorblind decision.