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Piedmont College Criticized for Accepting Grant from Anti-semite

February 21, 1952
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A decision yesterday of Piedmont College in Georgia to continue its acceptance of a $500 monthly grant from Texas millionaire George W. Armstrong, who boasts of his anti-Negro and anti-Semitic beliefs, was condemned today as “a repudiation of democratic teachings and intellectual integrity” by Justice Meier Steinbrink, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.

Armstrong, an oil and cattle magnate, finances the Texas Education Association, which has been making grants to the College since last spring. Maj. Gen. George Van Horn Moseley, Ret., once touted by native fascist groups as the coming “leader on horseback,” administers the Association’s funds. “Piedmont’s trustees cannot excuse their institution on the ground that it accepts Armstrong’s money and not his racist philosophy,” Justice Steinbrink declared. “They go hand in hand.”

The A.D.L. leader contrasted Piedmont’s “immoral conduct” with the “courage and integrity” shown by Jefferson Military College of Natchez, Miss., which three years ago faced bankruptcy but nonetheless rejected a $50,000,000 endowment offer from Armstrong which required that it limit enrollment to “white Christians.” Armstrong, a one-time county judge, has a lengthy record as an anti-Semitic, racist and nationalist pamphleteer and propagandist, A.D.L. officials said today.

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