This Week In WUSTL History

Sept. 21, 1959

Students moved into the first four residence halls built on the South 40: Liggett, Koenig, Rubelmann and Umrath.

Sept. 22, 1887

Dean William Hammond of the Law Department (now the School of Law) wrote to Walter Moran Farmer, an African-American who graduated from Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City in 1884, saying: “I write at once to say that you will be welcome. No distinction is made here on account of color, and one young man of color has gone thro’ our session since I came here six years ago.” Farmer matriculated that fall, graduated in 1889, and became the first African-American lawyer to argue before the Missouri Supreme Court.

This feature will be included in each 2003-04 issue of the Record in observance of Washington University’s 150th anniversary.