Bennett Harvie Branscomb (December 25, 1894 – July 23, 1998) was an American theologian and academic administrator. He served as the fourth
chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
of
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
, a private university in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
, from 1946 to 1963. Prior to his appointment at Vanderbilt, he was the director of the
Duke University Libraries
Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes.
The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public documen ...
and dean of the
Duke Divinity School
The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of ten graduate or professional schools within Duke University. It is also one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 regular ...
. Additionally, he served as a professor of Christian theology at
Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
. He was the author of several books about
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
theology.
Early life
Branscomb was born on December 25, 1894, in
Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...
.
His father,
Lewis C. Branscomb, was a Methodist minister and the president of the Alabama
Anti-Saloon League
The Anti-Saloon League (now known as the ''American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems'') is an organization of the temperance movement that lobbied for prohibition in the United States in the early 20th century.
Founded in 1893 in Oberl ...
.
His mother was Nancy McAdory.
Branscomb earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from
Birmingham-Southern College in 1914.
He was a
Rhodes Scholar
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
's
Wadham College
Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road.
Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...
,
where he earned another Bachelor of Arts degree in 1917
and a distinguished master's degree in biblical studies, receiving a coveted Greek prize and First Honors in Theology. He joined the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
and was stationed at
Fort Gordon
Fort Gordon, formerly known as Camp Gordon, is a United States Army installation established in October 1941. It is the current home of the United States Army Signal Corps, United States Army Cyber Command, and the Cyber Center of Excellence. It ...
during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
,
and he earned a PhD from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in 1924.
While a student at Oxford during WWI, Branscomb was a student volunteer with the Commission for Relief in Belgium. Through German lines, Branscomb and fellow student Oliver Carmichael smuggled a politically sensitive letter from Cardinal Mercier to Belgian priests recounting the killing of priests and urging resistance to the German invasion. The students hid the letter in a newspaper as they approached the German checkpoint. As Carmichael was searched by the guards, Branscomb discretely set the newspaper on a table behind him. Then as Branscomb was searched, Carmichael casually picked up the paper as the two were cleared and left the guard house. Three days later the letter was published in T''he'' ''London Times''. Belgium awarded Branscomb and Carmichael the Médaille du Roi Albert and the Médaille de la Reine Élisabeth for their bravery. Both men later served as Chancellor of Vanderbilt University.
Career
Branscomb began his career as an instructor in the department of philosophy at
Southern Methodist University
, mottoeng = "The truth will make you free"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = SACS
, academic_affiliations =
, religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church
, president = R. Gerald Turner
, prov ...
.
He became a professor of New Testament literature at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in 1925.
He was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1930–1931 to study in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and
Marburg
Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...
, Germany.
He was the director of the
Duke University Libraries
Duke University Libraries is the library system of Duke University, serving the university's students and faculty. The Libraries collectively hold some 6 million volumes.
The collection contains 17.7 million manuscripts, 1.2 million public documen ...
from 1933 to 1941,
He served as Dean of the
Duke Divinity School
The Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, is one of ten graduate or professional schools within Duke University. It is also one of thirteen seminaries founded and supported by the United Methodist Church. It has 39 regular ...
from 1944 to 1946.
There he sought to strengthen Duke University's leadership role in religious education and to strengthen connections between white and African American religious leaders, involving the latter in Duke Chapel services and programs for the first time.
Branscomb left the Deanship at Duke to become the fourth chancellor of Vanderbilt University from 1946 to 1963.
[Tucker, John Mark (2003) "B(ennett) Harvie Branscomb (1894–1998)" in Donald G. Davis, ed. Dictionary of American Library Biography. Vol. 3. Libraries Unlimited ] He obtained support for the university from national institutions and recruited national figures to the Board of Trust, including Harold Sterling Vanderbilt, the great-grandson of Vanderbilt University's founder Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Upon Branscomb's arrival at Vanderbilt in 1946, higher education in the South was strictly segregated, and he was told that no Blacks had ever been on the Vanderbilt campus except in a "menial capacity." Branscomb viewed segregation as not only unjust but as a roadblock in Vanderbilt's – indeed the South's – path to national recognition and influence. As a Southerner, he was aware of the resistance to change of the all-white Vanderbilt Board of Trustees, the alumni, and the white Nashville community. Branscomb staked a strategy for integrating the university that was deliberate, methodical, and pragmatic.
Early in his tenure, Branscomb broke ground by inviting faculty of Fisk University, an HBCU in Nashville, to attend Vanderbilt campus activities, and he and his wife Margaret included Fisk faculty in social events attended by the more liberal Vanderbilt Trustees and faculty. In 1949, when Vanderbilt Law School received its first application from an African American, the Board directed Branscomb to reply that the application would not be considered, rejecting Branscomb's suggested additional language, "at this time."
In the early 1950s, Branscomb raised with the Trustees the fact that the courts had pressured some public universities to admit African Americans and had ordered the integration of the University of Tennessee student body. With no such legal orders directed at private universities the Board did not act broadly, but in 1952 it accepted Branscomb's proposal that students of color at nearby Scarritt College be allowed to enroll in Vanderbilt classes in light of a prior student exchange agreement.
Not long thereafter, Branscomb joined the Board of the Southern Education Reporting Service (SERS), created to provide objective reporting on school desegregation that would counter the frequently biased, inflammatory Southern journalistic rhetoric on the topic.
In 1952 Branscomb worked behind the scenes with the Vanderbilt Divinity School Dean to draft a letter under the Dean's signature stating that the Divinity faculty were in favor of integration. Based on that letter, Branscomb requested two commitments from the Board of Trust. The first was that if a qualified African American should apply to the Divinity School, the application should be considered.
The Board's agreement led to the admission of Vanderbilt's first African American student, an applicant to the Divinity School in 1953. That student, Rev. Joseph A. Johnson, later served on Vanderbilt's Board of Trust.
The second 1952 request was that Vanderbilt should admit African Americans to any programs where similar programs were not locally available to Blacks. The university lawyer objected that integrated classes were illegal under Tennessee law. To that, Branscomb recalled replying, "...that we would rely on him to defend us if we were hailed
ic: hauledinto court, but that as far as the public was concerned, I was confident it would not be convinced that what was legally required in Knoxville was against the law in Nashville," a reference to court ordered integration at the University of Tennessee. The Board agreed. This commitment resulted in the admission of Blacks to the Vanderbilt Law School in 1954, which led to public uproar and calls for Branscomb's resignation.
In 1960,
James Lawson, a
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...
leader who was a Vanderbilt Divinity student, organized sit-ins in defiance of longstanding local segregation norms.
Meanwhile, the editor of the local newspaper,
James Geddes Stahlman
James Geddes Stahlman (February 28, 1893 – May 1, 1976) was an American newspaper publisher and philanthropist. He was the publisher of the ''Nashville Banner''. He was opposed to desegregation.
Early years
James Geddes Stahlman was born on Febr ...
, was publishing inflammatory anti-integration articles in the Nashville paper, including the questionable assertion that Lawson was advising university students to break the law.
Stahlman was an influential member of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust and on its executive committee, which voted to expel Lawson.
Lawson was given the option of being expelled or withdrawing from the university. He refused to withdraw and under intense pressure from the Trustees, Chancellor Branscomb carried out the expulsion directive.
A dozen faculty members resigned in protest.
Branscomb later re-examined his decision, regretting he did not consider the option of referring the matter to a committee to delay action for three months until Lawson's graduation.
The university later apologized to Rev. Lawson, who returned to teach at Vanderbilt from 2006 to 2009.
In 1962, Branscomb quietly suggested to the student newspaper that student calls for full University integration could be persuasive.
Buttressed by the resulting articles and a Faculty Senate resolution in favor that he had promoted, Branscomb's recommendation to integrate the remainder of the university programs was adopted at the Trustees' Meeting in May,1962, chaired by Board President H.S. Vanderbilt.
At the time of Branscomb's retirement in 1963, all of Vanderbilt's schools, colleges, eating facilities, and dormitories were integrated. In a speech at Vanderbilt Medical Center in 2006, Rev. Lawson expressed appreciation to the late Chancellor for taking the bold step of integrating Vanderbilt when almost all Southern universities were still segregated.
During Branscomb's tenure, at least 18 new buildings were erected on the Vanderbilt campus, the number of fulltime faculty doubled, faculty salaries almost tripled and the endowment went from $38 million to $88 million.
At the time he retired, the university was ranked for the first time among the country's top 20 private universities.
Branscomb served as first chairman of the United States Advisory Commission for Education Exchange from 1947 to 1951.
From 1955 to 1958 he served as Commission on Education and International Affairs of the
American Council of Education
The American Council on Education (ACE) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) U.S. higher education association established in 1918. ACE's members are the leaders of approximately 1,700 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher educatio ...
.
From 1963 to 1964 he was an educational consultant for the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
, and he chaired the United States Commission for
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
from 1963 to 1965.
He also served as vice-chairman of the United States delegation to the Unesco General Conference in Paris in 1964, chair of the United States Delegation to the World Conference on the Eradication of Illiteracy in Tehran in 1965.
He traveled to Geneva for the United States Delegation to the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
Assembly in 1965 and 1966, and to Buenos Aires to chair the U.S. Delegation to the Conference of Ministers of Education and Ministers in Charge of Planning in 1966.
Branscomb was the author of several books about New Testament theology. He was the president of the National Association of Biblical Instructors (later known as the
American Academy of Religion
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholarly method, scholars in the List of academic disciplines, field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association,
serving as a profes ...
) in 1940.
Past presidents of the AAR
(accessed July 5, 2014). He served on the commission on church and war of the Federal Council of Churches
The Federal Council of Churches, officially the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, was an ecumenical association of Christian denominations in the United States in the early twentieth century. It represented the Anglican, Baptist, Ea ...
, and on the American theological committee of the World Council of Churches
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most juri ...
.
Branscomb served on the board of directors of the Association of Rhodes Scholars, and he was the editor of the '' American Oxonian'' in the 1940s. He was also on the board of the American Council of Learned Societies
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
. Branscomb served on the editorial board of the ''South Atlantic Quarterly''. He held honorary degrees from Brandeis University
, mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts"
, established =
, type = Private research university
, accreditation = NECHE
, president = Ronald D. Liebowitz
, pro ...
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
, Southwestern University
Southwestern University (Southwestern or SU) is a private liberal arts college in Georgetown, Texas. Formed in 1873 from a revival of collegiate charters granted in 1840, Southwestern is the oldest college or university in Texas. Southwestern o ...
, and Hebrew Union College
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
.
Personal life and death
Branscomb married Margaret Vaughan, the daughter of a lawyer from Greenville, Texas
Greenville is a city in Hunt County, Texas, United States, about northeast of Dallas. It is the county seat and largest city of Hunt County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 25,557, and in 2019, its estimated population was 28,827. ...
, and the niece of a Vanderbilt alumna, in 1921 and they were married 71 years. They had three sons: Harvie, Ben and Lewis. They resided in Nashville, Tennessee. Branscomb played tennis and golf and raised gladioli
''Gladiolus'' (from Latin, the diminutive of ''gladius'', a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae).
It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural ''g ...
and chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...
s.
Branscomb died at age 103 on July 23, 1998, in Nashville. His funeral was held in Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus, where his remains are interned in a vault along with his wife's.
Bibliography
* ''The Message of Jesus'' (1925)
* ''Jesus and the Law of Moses'' (1930)
* ''The Teachings of Jesus'' (1931)
* ''The Gospel of Mark'' (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1937
Google snippet
* ''Teaching With Books'' (1940)
* ''Purely Academic: An Autobiography'' (1978)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Branscomb, Harvie
1894 births
1998 deaths
People from Huntsville, Alabama
People from Nashville, Tennessee
American centenarians
Men centenarians
American Rhodes Scholars
Chancellors of Vanderbilt University
Columbia University alumni
Birmingham–Southern College alumni
Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford
Southern Methodist University faculty
Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni
Presidents of the American Academy of Religion
Duke Divinity School faculty