The Girard College Case: Desegregation and a Municipal Trust
| DOI | 10.1177/000271625630400109 |
| Published date | 01 March 1956 |
| Author | Milton M. Gordon |
| Date | 01 March 1956 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
53
The
Girard
College
Case:
Desegregation
and
a
Municipal
Trust
HEN
Stephen
Girard,
French-
Wborn
Philadelphia
merchant
and
banker,
died
in
1831
he
was
one
of
the
richest,
possibly
the
richest,
American
of
his
time.’
Increasingly
occupied
in
the
latter
years
of
his
life
with
public
benefaction,
Girard
left
the
bulk
of
his
estate
in
trust
to
the
city
of
Philadel-
phia
for
the
establishment
of
a
&dquo;college&dquo;
for
the
education
and
maintenance
of
&dquo;poor
male
white
orphans.&dquo;
2
The
will
specified
elaborately
the
nature
of
the
physical
plant
to
be
erected
and
left
general
instructions
for
the
content
of
the
curriculum.
The
first
huge
Greek-
revival
buildings
were
finally
completed,
and
the
College
opened
its
doors
in
1848
and
has
been
in
operation
ever
since,
providing
its
scholars
with
board
and
room,
clothing,
supervision,
and
an
ele-
mentary
and
secondary
school
education
up
to
the
maximum
age
of
eighteen.
The
estate
has
grown
in
size
with
the
passage
of
the
years
until
in
1955,
apart
from
the
value
of
the
campus
property
itself,
it
amounts.
to
over
$88,000,000,
giving
Girard
College
with
its
current
enrollment
of
about
1,100
boys
an
en-
dowment
greater
than
that
of
any
col-
lege
or
university
in
the
country
with
the
exception
of
Harvard,
Yale,
Colum-
bia,
and
the
University
of
Texas.8
Upon
Girard’s
death,
the
city
of
Phila-
delphia
created
a
special
Board
of
Trus-
tees
to
administer
the
estate;
in
1869
this
arrangement
was
superseded
by
a
legislative
act
which
created
a
Board
of
Directors
of
City
Trusts
and
trans-
ferred
to
it
the
administration
of
the
Girard
Estate
and
other
similar
trusts.
This
board
includes
the
Mayor
and
the
President
of
City
Council,
ex
officio,
and
twelve
other
citizens
appointed
by
the
Board
of
Judges
of
the
Courts
of
Common
Pleas
of
the
County
of
Phila-
delphia.
For
over
a
century,
then,
the
city
of
Philadelphia,
through
its
special
boards,
has
administered
a
trust
which
is
used
to
operate
a
boarding
school
and
home
for
male
orphans,
excluding
nonwhites.
Against
the
background
of
changing
so-
cial
and
cultural
conceptions
of
race
re-
lations,
the
impact
of
the
recent
Su-
preme
Court
decisions
against
segrega-
tion
in
public
education,4
and
the
large
and
growing
Negro
population
in
Phila-
delphia
(about
20
per
cent
of
a
total
population
of
over
two
million5),
a
1
For
a
judicious,
unbowdlerized,
and
essen-
tially
sympathetic
account
of
Girard’s
life,
see
Harry
Emerson
Wildes,
Lonely
Midas
(New
York:
Farrar
and
Rinehart,
1943).
The
au-
thorized
biography
is
John
Bach
McMaster,
The
Life
and
Times
of
Stephen
Girard,
2 vols.,
Philadelphia:
J.
B.
Lippincott
Co.,
1918.
2
A
nineteenth-century
court
decided
that
under
the
terms
of
the
will
an
orphan
boy
was
one
who
had
lost
his
father.
See
Soohan
v.
City
of
Philadelphia,
33
Pa.
9
(1859).
3
Girard
College,
however,
receives
no
in-
come
in
the
form
of
tuition
or
payment
for
room
and
board.
Its
entire
income
derives
from
the
estate.
4
Segregation
in
the
Pennsylvania
public
schools
has
been
illegal
since
1881.
5
In
the
1950
United
States
Census
of
Popu-
lation,
the
city
of
Philadelphia
had
2,071,605
inhabitants
of
which
376,041,
or
18.2
per
cent
were
Negroes.
A
recent
estimate
by
the
Phila-
delphia
City
Planning
Commission
gives
the
1955
population
of
the
city
as
2,161,000,
and
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