Bennett’s President Stood by Her Belles

By: JENNIFER COWARD

In 1960, Bennett students and other area college students decided to boycott unequal treatment of Black citizens at the local Woolworth’s lunch counter. Belles were part of the planning and the protest.

Former Bennett College president Willa B. Player, Ed.D, told a reporter with the Greensboro News and Record that she did not know that the Bennett students were participating in the movement until she saw their faces in the paper. But she was never against the students’ motives. She simply stated to the reporter that she would “let it ride.” Player’s only request from the students was that they report to her daily about their activities.

When nearly 40 percent of Belles were under arrest and missing valuable lessons, Player held a meeting with the faculty and arranged for the students to hold class and take their exams in jail. Player would visit the students regularly as they remained incarcerated. At the time, other college presidents forbade their students from participating.

“Here were students realizing that as citizens and students at a liberal arts college they were being denied of their equal rights,” she told a reporter.

It wasn’t the first time she went against the grain. In 1958, Dr. Player allowed Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak in the Annie Merner Pffeifer Chapel when no other church would allow him to do so.

Player became the first woman president of Bennett and served as president of the college from 1955 until 1966 leading the students to great heights and accomplishments. She was an active member within the Bennett Community until her death in 2003.