Willa Beatrice Player

Willa Beatrice Player (August 9, 1909 – August 29, 2003) was an American educator, college administrator, college president, civil rights activist, and federal appointee. Player was the first African-American woman to become president of a four-year, fully accredited liberal arts college when she took the position at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.

In her career at Bennett College, Player had served as a teacher and then in progressively responsible administrator positions. From 1955 to 1966, Player served as president of the historically black college, during a period of heightened civil rights activism in the South. She supported Bennett students who took part in the lengthy sit-ins started by the Greensboro Four to achieve integration of lunch counters in downtown stores.

Player had a strong education, earning a BA degree from Ohio Wesleyan College, a Master's from Oberlin College, a Certificat d'Études at University of Grenoble in France, and a PhD from Columbia University. After leaving the Bennett presidency, Player was appointed in 1966 by President Lyndon B. Johnson as the first female Director of the Division of College Support in the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare, serving until 1986.

Early life and education Willa Player, the youngest of three children, was born to Clarence Cromwell Player and Beatrice (Day) Player in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1909. Her family moved to Akron, Ohio, in 1917, While living in Akron, Player studied violin.

While attending West High School in Akron, Player was active in the school's orchestra, chemistry club, and as a student tutor. Its president was still David Dallas Jones.

In 1955, Player was appointed as acting president when Jones was diagnosed with cancer. Knowing he would not be able to perform his duties, Jones recommended Player to the board of trustees for the president's position at Bennett. In the fall of 1956, Willa Player was inaugurated as the president of Bennett College, the first African-American woman to be selected as president of an accredited, four-year college. In 1957, Player gained accreditation for the college from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

Civil rights movement In the postwar period, civil rights organizations increased activism to achieve racial justice and exercise of constitutional rights, including integration of public facilities and the ability for blacks to register and vote in the South. Most blacks in North Carolina and other southern states had been disenfranchised since the turn of the century by laws of white-dominated state legislatures. The activism generated resistance and controversy among those who wanted no change in the Jim Crow social order.

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 and co-founder in 1957 of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was invited to Greensboro in February 1958 by local African-American clergy and the NAACP. But because of controversy around him, local churches and colleges did not want to host him as a speaker. When Player was asked to host him, she said: "Bennett College is a liberal arts college where 'freedom rings,' so King can speak here." King spoke to an overflow crowd on February 11, 1958, at Annie Merner Pfeiffer Chapel at Bennett. a position she held until retiring in 1986.

Legacy and honors Player was inducted into the Ohio Hall of Fame (1984) and the Ohio United Methodist Hall of Fame (1985).

She received several honorary doctorates during her career: Doctor of Laws, Ohio Wesleyan University (1953); Doctor of Laws, Lycoming College (1962); Doctor of Laws, Morehouse College (1963), Doctor of Laws, Albion College (1963); Doctor of Humane Letters, Keuka College (1967); Doctor of Humane Letter, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1969); Doctor of Public Service, Prairie View A & M University (1971).

In 1962 she received the Silver Medallion from the Greensboro chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews (NCCJ), for her leadership in the areas of "religious and racial understanding and tolerance."