The resignation of Dr. James N. Hester, president of New York University, and the immediate dismissal of John F. Hatchett named by Dr. Hester as director of the university’s new Martin Luther King Jr. Afro-American Center was urged by Rep. Bertram L. Podell. N.Y. Democrat, in the House today.
Rept. Podell charged in a speech that Dr. Hester compromised his role by the Hatchett appointment and by his subsequent defense of Mr. Hatchett against charges that he was an anti-Semite. The appointment has been the subject of sharp protests by Jewish and other groups because of an article Mr. Hatchett wrote in a Negro teachers’ periodical in 1967 in which he alleged that Jewish teachers control the New York City public school system and that they and their Negro imitators were “mentally poisoning” Negro pupils. The former Harlem school teacher said his article was not anti-Semitic in intent but defended his right to identify the ethnic background of the teachers he criticized. Dr. Hester subsequently upheld Mr. Hatchett’s disclaimer of anti-Semitic intent. But he said he did not condone the contents of the Hatchett article of which he said he had not been aware when he appointed Hatchett to the university post.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
