1. There can be no question as to the desirability of and even necessity of training Natives as social workers in South Africa.
2. The South African College at Fort Hare being the centre of Higher Education among the Bantu is the most suitable place for such training.
3. Mr. Yergan is quite the best man in South Africa to undertake this training. Moreover in Mr. Alexander Kerr, the principal of the South African Native College, he has one of the wisest and shrewdest white men in South Africa as a colleague and advisor.
4. The complete scheme is somewhat ambitious but Mr. Yergan is wise enough to proceed one step at a time.
5. If the scheme is carried through there is need for a governing council of the proposed institute to ensure the support of all the mission and other bodies engaged in social work among the Bantu.
6. It seems to me to be imperative to make certain that other employment is available for the men and women trained at this Institute. Mr. Yergan’s memorandum is more optimistic on this point than I should be at present. There is no organized YMCA movement for Non-Europeans. I am certain that the Union Government would engage such men although the Directors of Native Education might prefer to appoint as inspectors of schools or supervisors men who received this additional training. I am not as optimistic as Mr. Yergan regarding the employment of urban workers.
The general idea is a good one and Mr. Yergan deserves every support but there are innumerable details to be settled before I could recommend the scheme for financial support.83
In Loram, Natal’s chief inspector of Native Education, Yergan received the most sympathetic hearing he was likely to get from any official in or close to government in South Africa, but even Loram conceded that Max Yergan’s proposal faced certain practical and technical obstacles. Loram spoke both to and for government—and Carnegie. It is evident, then, that all concerned took the scheme seriously.
A month later, Phelps Stokes, on tour in South Africa, told a colleague that he had great confidence in Yergan, though temporizing that the present hard times might make it difficult to carry off the plan. Phelps Stokes took pains to point out that in his view “Yergan is a man to tie up to.”84 As an illustration of this, Stokes asserted that the African-American was held in respect everywhere he had visited, including Stellenbosch, St. Cuthbert’s, and other schools. To amplify this, Stokes jubilantly trumpeted that “wherever I show his picture it is vigorously applauded, indeed, next to Aggrey, there is no picture that brings out anything like the enthusiasm with both audiences as a picture of Max Yergan, unless it be that of Abraham Lincoln.”85 But by then, massive changes involving Yergan were well underway. Eventually, Mrs. Datta quietly relinquished the secretariat; Yergan, however, went out with a characteristic rhetorical flourish. Defiant, unrepentant, and maintaining his stance as the aggrieved party, he unsparingly lambasted Miller in a note scorchingly abdicating office.
In the summer of 1932, “at a special meeting of officers and members of the Federation Executive called upon [his] request,” Max Yergan tendered a verbal resignation from the Executive Committee of the WSCF. This was followed by a letter charging Chairman Miller with gross misconduct regarding his personal and domestic affairs and unauthorized interference into his official position in South Africa. As earlier letters make clear, Miller and Yergan had been quite close. This friendship was one of the casualties of the Datta-Yergan affair. Unable to extract a face-saving apology from Miller, Yergan fumed,
Notwithstanding the nature of his actions and my firm conviction that Mr. Miller has also been actuated by racial prejudice in what he has done, I had hoped that a suitable recognition of his wrong and an apology for it by him would make it unnecessary for me to sever my connection with the Executive Committee to which I had just been reelected. On the very last day of the General Committee meeting, therefore, I took the initiative, sought Mr. Miller and gave him the opportunity to make the required apology and amends. The result of my effort was as stated above. I still hope that the chairman… will be led to recognize and apologize for the wrong he has done my family and myself and thereby heal this breach in the official life of the Federation.86
Because of the lag between August and early September 1932, the period between his oral and written resignations, Yergan’s star might have still seemed in the ascendant when David R. Porter wrote his friend from Oberlin. Writing in his official capacity as executive secretary of the National Council of Student Associations, Porter told Yergan of the accomplishments of the body’s most recent meeting. The timeliness and poignancy of the letter must have been heartening for Yergan, in light of the doubts he had been confronting in preceding months. Porter opened in the spirit of genuine fraternity:
No meeting of the National Council of Student Associations can be held without frequent reference being made to you and other members of our fellowship who are in work in other lands. Your name and work have been mentioned several times in this meeting, enriching our lives because the very calling of attention to the significance of your position of leadership of thought and action with the students of South Africa takes us out of our concerns at home and into the larger concerns of the Christian world task. Those of us who know you personally cherish your friendship; the rest of us are eager to begin friendships with you when you make your next appearance in the States.87
Irksome questions remain about this scandal. When Porter’s letter was first uncovered, little else concerning this curious episode could be determined. Any reference files that contained information on it had either been expurgated or kept in perennial confidentiality. At that time, only Yergan’s interpretation of the events referred to in Miller’s cryptic autobiographical allusion could be located. It steadily became evident that something of a potentially compromising nature was rather obviously and even uncharacteristically being concealed. In view of later evidence, some of the reasoning behind this concealment can be seen as sound. But it does not explain Yergan’s reelection to his WSCF position. If he was viewed as a scoundrel, a rake, or a common adulterer, it should not have been difficult to ease him out of office, unless perchance there was another dimension—a division of opinion on the question—and Yergan, and perhaps Rena C. Datta as well, capably marshaled their own forces, who believed their counterinterpretation of the events and sided with them against Miller. From Porter’s letter, drafted after the August meeting but in advance of the formal written resignation, it is clear that Yergan had many committed friends in the WSCF who kept faith in him and in the sincerity of what he said he was doing.
What seems remarkable in the Datta-Yergan correspondence that survives, notably that part of it still housed in the federation’s Geneva archives, is how well these two cooperated, especially in the planning of the 1930 Fort Hare conference. There certainly was a great deal of cable traffic, but it is not inconceivable that this was caused primarily by the exigencies of their strategizing process. Few if any of the surviving cables seem sensitive in any way and several were signed off by other federation officials operating in Geneva. While a romantic affair may well have grown out of this work, it could also have had political overtones that Miller and others found equally objectionable, since Yergan wrote quite frankly about South Africa as his stand was becoming more and more openly radical, especially after 1928. Had a link between radical thinking and the appearance of impropriety in a relationship with Rena Datta prompted a coup against him?
Early in 1931 Yergan wrote Rena Datta, replying to a note she had sent the previous November expressing support. Its carefully chosen prose, full of emotion, reflected the kind of spiritual depth one would associate with an evangelist of his stripe. Yergan wrote,
I am sure you, and I trust others, realise that there is much more involved in our situation here than the mere question of relationships. I said in a letter to Cockin a few weeks ago that we are faced with the task of establishing the fact that in its final analysis the racial question for us involves a great spiritual fact. Frankly I have n
o interest whatever in facing it except from this point of view. I think one might develop interest from an altogether different point of view and this may doubtless come to pass but for the past years and for the present I have been throwing myself into this task from the conviction that God’s will is involved and God’s way is the way. It has been and is difficult going and that is why the sort of help which you and others have given is so much appreciated. One’s hands have really been upheld.
Two weeks after delivering his formal resignation note Yergan wrote David Porter, thanking him for a September 11 letter written after his Oberlin Student Division meeting tribute of September 6. Having found Porter’s missive upon returning from visits to SCAs in the Transkei, Yergan opined,
These are times when everything within us is being tested by the actual circumstances of life as well as by the forces which are creating circumstances.… I think it is also true that, to an unusual extent, severe strains are being placed upon us personally and that the reality of all the truly spiritual powers, which we are capable of possessing, are being tested by our human relationships. Coming therefore, at such a time as this, your letter is very much appreciated, and I write to thank you for everything you say in it.88
Then Yergan opened up to Porter, as only a friend might dare. He showed Porter his utter vulnerability and honestly bared his soul. The armor of his seemingly unflappable exterior had been breached, leaving Yergan deeply wounded in the regrettable federation affray. Thus, seeking consolation, he struggled to attain psychic equilibrium:
I rejoice in the fact that it is possible for us to break through great distances and every other barrier even more real and find something of reality in what we speak of as universal Christian fellowship. I have been finding this fellowship exceedingly shallow and meaningless when put to any real test, and I have been brought to the point where, for my own spiritual future, I must examine it almost ruthlessly in order to make sure that it really exists. It is therefore with all the more joy that I welcome your letter and the meaning which I can believe is behind it. It is always a tremendous encouragement to me to know that I have relationships with you, and a few others in America, which fall within the realm of spiritual reality.89
It is likely that the disposition of the alleged affair with Rena Datta will never be known, particularly inasmuch as it indeed seems plausible that the correspondence that would have given concrete proof of its existence was, in fact, shredded. There are snapshots of Yergan with Mrs. Datta during the Mysore Convention, and no spouses are in evidence at that moment. Yergan certainly had a fondness for magnetic women—of that there can be no doubt. Even though circumstantial evidence suggests some salacious possibilities, there are other attractive women with whom Yergan was linked who were high-minded enough to conduct an extremely deep, intellectual relationship with him; that such relationships occurred indicates that Yergan’s own interests in dynamic women and in the spiritual underpinnings that animated the ecumenical movement went far beyond the superficial. One indication that this was so was his acquaintance with Juliette Derricotte, an extraordinarily engaging woman who was among the most brilliant leaders ever produced within the context of the YWCA.
Juliette Derricotte
In the interwar era, Juliette Derricotte was a national figure in the Black YWCA, sister movement of the Colored Work Department. In the same way that the male leaders of the Black YMCA kept each other apprised of the progress of the struggle against discrimination in the larger organization, their spouses were also often involved in parallel activities within the YWCA. At roughly the same time when Yergan began to cultivate a constituency that was international in scope, Juliette Derricotte was doing likewise. As with Rena Datta, Yergan had an ally in Derricotte. Derricotte and Yergan spent a considerable time together at Mysore, and one letter from her to him treats at length the problems common to interracial student work among young women and men. Their relationship was professional, businesslike, and scrupulous in its attention to the fact that Derricotte knew the Yergan family. At the same time, the two had serious, tender concern for one another, and, whether seen in terms of Christian comity or as a product of their common struggles, both her writings to him and, later, his poignant eulogy of her following her death were abidingly and publicly affectionate.
Derricotte and Yergan met on a number of occasions. The Black leadership stratum within the YMCA and YWCA was small and tightly knit, particularly among nationally known figures. The two movements functioned complementarily, and it was not uncommon for YMCA men to marry YWCA women. These structures had tremendous importance during the segregation era, as alternative sources of professional authority, status, and rank. Derricotte’s cooptation by the WSCF gave her international stature, as happened for Yergan. They compared notes about their respective experiences since it was clear that within the context of the WSCF both were being used as guinea pigs in a social experiment examining the feasibility of racial integration within the federation on a token albeit meaningful basis.
In the summer of 1929, Derricotte sent Yergan a letter, belatedly answering his request that she document some of her impressions of the efforts made by the Student Christian Movements on behalf of Black students in the United States. It began by indicating the degree to which the historically Black colleges were hamstrung by the findings of the 1916 Thomas Jesse Jones report on Negro education, which emphasized Hampton-Tuskegee-style industrial training over academic institutions like Talladega, Atlanta University, Wiley, and Shaw. Black schools, already suffering from limited fiscal endowments and inadequate equipment, still strove to provide liberal educations. The Association of College Presidents in Negro Schools consequently pushed for a reexamination of the colleges.
Derricotte pointed out the significance of the reorganization of particular educational centers—principally the merger of Atlanta University, Morehouse, and Spelman College—for President John Hope. Other topics touched upon included a congressional bill granting a permanent appropriation to Howard University, the creation of Dillard University, and the emergence of Hampton and Tuskegee as degree-granting institutions. Derricotte took special interest in indicating the growing numbers of Black college students: twenty thousand enrolled, three thousand of whom attended White schools. She noted changes in racial composition among historically Black college faculties. Once heavily White, they were now increasingly Black, showing a growth of educated Black professionals at high levels. The new Black Ph.D.s, however, were often hampered by their relatively narrow scholastic interests, which caused them to neglect the old concern for “personal relations” that had once marked Negro education. She also lamented the rise of athletics and fraternities as new sources of privilege, often with great political consequences.
But it was the religious underpinnings of the work of the Student Christian Movement, the YWCA, and the YMCA that brought out the best in Derricotte. Obviously, the mission of these groups had been on her mind for a very long time. Nostalgic perhaps for the old days, she mourned the passing of a disciplined, sober, religiously formed attitude to life. In ways that resembled some of the attitudes expressed about urban life in general, greater freedom was equated with lax discipline, yielding myriad problems. Her thoughtful summation brought all of these ideas together:
Now when you couple with this religious lethargy on campuses the general disinterest in religion among colored people in the United States right now, you can see very clearly what our position as Student Christian Movement workers is. I know that there isn’t a colored church in most of our cities which would not be packed to the utmost every Sunday morning, but you and I know that the younger generation of colored people, our young business men and our young professional men, have got so involved in their thinking on this question of race and religion that the old time religion, for which our racial group was noted, can no longer be credited as a part of the experience of the younger group. The YMCA and YWCA among colored people are not religious organizations, and I think
we fool ourselves if we keep thinking they are. I will not presume to speak for the YMCA in detail, but I know that for the majority of colored women in the United States the YWCA is an organization which offers them a chance for a kind of leadership that they may find difficult to get in other organizations, and that it serves mostly as a tool with which they handle certain racial situations in the United States, and of course in too many of our cities it has become a purely commercial enterprise.90
Derricotte echoed many of Yergan’s concerns about the nature and significance of Student Christian Work. Through letters like hers he kept pace with some of the major changes in American society and reflected upon these to an extent that might not have been possible had he remained in North America. South Africa afforded him an important critical distance from the U.S. battlefield. The deterioration of the YMCA and YWCA and the diminution of interest in religion among younger people were also apparent in South Africa, in Fort Hare and elsewhere, and this had to affect Yergan’s thinking. Finally, Derricotte made a keen aside concerning WSCF chairman F. P. Miller that deserves consideration in light of the Yergan-Datta episode. While Derricotte’s remark need not have portended the scandal, it provides food for thought. This is what Derricotte wrote about him, whom she knew from her WSCF position:
Francis Miller came in the office just for a few minutes during his recent visit to the United States. He is most enthusiastic in his new relationship to the Federation. I was a little disappointed that he was not as frank as I had believed he would be in this position, especially on the matters of the Federation and International Student Service. We do not find ourselves so clear, as men and women go, in working out our relationships as national movements to both of these interests. I hope you are going to stick by the Executive Committee and help steer us through to a very honest attitude.91
Derricotte was not fully at ease in Miller’s presence, and she did not find him forthcoming. Neither observation could bode well for the WSCF, as far as interracial and interorganizational work between YWCA and YMCA leaders was concerned. Her decision to gently prod Yergan in a favorable direction may have a larger significance not readily apparent. Derricotte was extraordinarily diplomatic in her treatment of controversial issues, a characteristic quite necessary for YWCA and YMCA secretaries, particularly if they were persons of color. John Mott, Miller’s predecessor as WSCF chairman, seems to have been far more able to put Black people at ease than his Virginian successor. Derricotte here also apparently wondered about Miller’s ability to work cooperatively with women, something Yergan might facilitate. If this is an accurate reading, it might show yet another Yergan skill.
Max Yergan Page 17
