Dr. Willa B. Player

Willa Player was president of Bennett College from 1956 to 1966, and her students at the private college for black women were active in the sit-ins. Player played a “quiet but effective role in the struggle for civil rights in Greensboro” by encouraging students to participate, then-President Johnnetta Cole would say after Player’s death in 2003.

A native of Jackson, Miss., Player first came to Bennett at age 21 to teach. When she was named college president in 1956, she became Bennett’s first female president and the first African American woman in the country to l ead a four-year college. Player graduated from Ohio Wesleyan and received a master’s degree from Oberlin College and a doctorate from Columbia University. She is perhaps best known for agreeing to host a speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Bennett in 1958, just after the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. Others feared his presence would spark violence.

“Bennett College is a liberal-arts school where freedom rings,” Player said, “so Martin Luther King Jr. can speak here.”

She died Aug. 27, 2003, at age 94.

Audio (MP3)

Player first learns of Bennett student involvement in the sit-ins from interview on 12/3/79 (1:16)
Player holds faculty meeting to decide if Bennett students can participate from interview on 12/3/79 (0:37)
Administration tells students that they support sit-ins (:28)
Player defends sit-ins at meeting of city college administrations (1:55)