Wheaton College is widely recognized for its endeavor to integrate faith and learning, so it is somewhat surprising to discover that there was a moment when its administration stoutly resisted the implementation of a theater program. It may also come as a surprise for some to learn that another Christian liberal arts college, Bob Jones University, pursued drama as a valid educational discipline decades before Wheaton.

Bob Jones College (now University) was founded in 1927 in College Point, Florida, by Methodist revivalist Dr. Bob Jones Sr. He determined that this institution defy the mockery of the day. “This college,” he said, “was founded [to] neutralize in this country the idea that if you are conservative and believe the Bible, that you are a sort of fanatic, or you’re lopsided or something. Some people – worldly, highbrowed, snooty people – think that if you’re a Christian, you’re queer…So we wanted to build a college that would neutralize in the minds of the public the idea that culture does not go hand in hand with the old-time conservative, Christian approach, and so we started off on that basis.”

But the appearance of Bob Jones College on the Christian educational scene was not welcomed by all within the conservative community. Most notably, J. Oliver Buswell, third president of Wheaton College, publicly objected, stating, “One [orthodox school] is enough. We ought to stay by that.” He added that, “Wheaton was doing everything that needed to be done.” Jones ignored Buswell and forged ahead. With its student body expanding amid the modernist/fundamentalist controversies of the 30s and 40s, the college moved from Florida to Cleveland, Tennessee, and finally to its present location in Greenville, South Carolina.

Occasionally Wheaton and Bob Jones College attempted to cooperate, but these efforts often failed. For instance, in 1929 Buswell and other Christian educators tried to convince Jones to join their fight against educational standardization. Jones resisted, stating that he wanted to cooperate with religious educators; beside that, he wanted academic standardization rather than accreditation. Just a few years later Buswell and his colleagues reversed their position, organizing an accrediting organization for religious schools. Jones refused to join, believing that any such association ran counter to the goals of Bob Jones College and its board. So Jones paid a dear price: BJC was stigmatized as anti-intellectual and publicly attacked by Buswell because it remained unaffiliated with the association he headed.

In 1940 tension between the two institutions exacerbated when the Bob Jones College Classic Players, the only college-based repertory in the nation, performed Shakespeare and Greek tragedy. Of course, BJC received pointed criticism from its Fundamentalist constituency. However, John R. Rice, editor of The Sword of the Lord, located in Wheaton, Illinois, defended the program, stating that “Shakespeare is great literature.” As with other subjects pertaining to the human experience, it was worthy of study. Again, the sharpest criticism was launched by Buswell, who had resisted drama at Wheaton College until his dismissal from its presidency in 1940, though students favored theatrical studies. Reviewing a 1949 sermon by Dr. Bob, Sr., Buswell, now serving as president of Shelton Bible College in New York, inquired: “…Let me ask you a question or two. Your own educational program is reeking with theatricals and grand opera, which lead young people, as I know, and as you ought to know, into a worldly life of sin.” John R. Rice published a three-page rebuttal in The Sword of the Lord, declaring that Buswell’s assertion was “utterly untrue.” In the years after Buswell left Wheaton, some classes were known to perform at least one short play, skit or pageant per week. Dr. Ed Hollatz, who completed his undergraduate degree at BJU and later served as professor of Speech and Communication at Wheaton, directed in 1966 Wheaton’s first “official” drama, Macbeth, inaugurating a series of successfully produced performances at Arena Theater. Stagings by others include Tartuffe, Medea, Murder in the Cathedral, The Crucible, Waiting for Godot and many more.

Since those early, steamy days, both Wheaton and Bob Jones University have enjoyed endless banquets of cultural offerings. Dr. Bob Jones, Jr., second president of the university, was an accomplished Shakespearean actor, approached by Hollywood and Broadway (refusing both), in addition to founding the largest Renaissance art collection in the western hemisphere. Similarly, Wheaton College, west of Chicago, boasts a world-renowned curriculum showcasing music, art, theater and writing, in addition to maintaining attractive, oft-visited campus museums featuring archaeological artifacts, British literature and American evangelism.

Other notable Wheaton College faculty who attended BJU include Robert E. Webber, late professor of Theology, Joseph McClatchey, late professor of English and Rolland Hein, retired professor of English.

Correspondence pertaining to the ideological complaints of Bob Jones, both Sr. and Jr., against the National Association of Evangelicals (SC-113) is maintained in Special Collections at Wheaton College.

(Much of the material for this entry is derived from Daniel L. Turner’s Standing Without Apology: The History of Bob Jones University, 2001)

Theodore Wellington Jones was born on September 19, 1853 in Hamilton, Ontario during his parents temporary residence in that city . Soon after his parents returned to their native state, New York, and there remained until Theodore was twelve years old. In 1865 this very large family decided to make Illinois their home and settled in Chicago. Because his parents were poor and unable to give him even a common school education, Jones was compelled to support himself. At the age of fifteen years he was driving an express wagon, eventually establishing a successful express and moving business.

With his business established Jones wished to obtain an education to fill in the educational gaps of his childhood. Through the aid of private tutors and the “midnight oil,” he was able, when twenty-five years of age, to enter Wheaton College, Wheaton, Ill., where he remained three years. After his time at Wheaton he returned to his business in Chicago where his prosperity continued. He became the owner of a large brick storage warehouse at Twenty-Ninth Street and Shields Avenue, along with other valuable property. His business employed at one time three clerks and about fifty men, all individuals of color. In 1894, Theodore W. Jones was elected a County Commissioner of Cook County, Illinois on the Republican ticket. He was known to ably perform the duties of his office and he labored earnestly and unselfishly to advance the interests of African Americans in Chicago. During Mr. Jones’ term of office African Americans Cook County drew $50,000 in yearly salary — about seven times the amount paid into the county treasury by them. He was a valued member of the National Negro Business League and organized the branch league in Chicago, known as the Business Men’s League of Cook County. This league entertained the National League in Chicago, August 21, 22, 23, 1901. (adapted from Daniel Culp’s Twentieth Century Negro Literature)

Jones was considered one of the principal lieutenants of Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Machine in Chicago. Following Washington’s ideas, while a member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners and as an officer of the National Negro Business League, Jones sought to seek co-existence rather than integration. He didn’t view the problems of segregation as troublesome as some of his contemporaries. According to Allan Spear, in his great work Black Chicago, Jones said in January 1906 in Broad Ax that “the Southern Negro’s interest in the ballot is on the wane” and that “in these states where the disfranchisement laws are the most rigid, there thrift and repeated success has more than crowned the efforts of the Negro.” Jones later left Chicago, experiencing some difficulties. Records indicate that in 1908 he faced a bigamy charge in Kansas. Several years later he was reported to be in Richmond, Virgnia, where he was secretary-treasurer of the Negro Historical and Industrial Association, promoting the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation. (see Giles B. Jackson to BTW, Oct. 26, 1914, Con. 506, BTW Papers, OLC.)

For decades it has been believed that the Illinois Institute, and its later incarnation as Wheaton College, was a stop on the Underground Railroad. It was true that those institutions stood firmly on the principle of abolition and its leadership were heavily involved and known widely as abolitionists. They risked their lives to seek freedom for the enslaved.

Because it has been difficult to substantiate these beliefs and reports many at Wheaton College have felt less sure of the claims made by those more knowledgeable about the activities of the Underground Railroad in DuPage County. All that had been previously located was a reference to a quote by Maria Blanchard Cook that in Wheaton the Underground Railroad was operated above ground. Glennette Tilley Turner has spent decades researching and reporting on the freedrom trail as it ran through the county, but even her research had yet to uncover any written documentation to support claims that on their face held weight. It appears that the faith of many was well placed.

Dr. David Maas, of Wheaton’s history faculty, has been putting the finishing touches on a book manuscript detailing the abolitionist roots of Wheaton College and those that served in the United States Civil War. He made a recent discovery, related somewhat to Maria Cook, that challenges the cloud of uncertainty that has hung over this question.

While confirming a detail related to Ezra Cook’s service with the Thirty-ninth Regiment of the Illinois Volunteer Infantry he encountered Cook’s retelling of how he entered the service and his association with Wheaton College.

The outbreak of the war in the spring of 1861 found myself and two sisters attending Wheaton College, which had a national reputation as an Abolition school in an Abolition town. So strong was public sentiment that runaway slaves were perfectly safe in the College building, even when no attempt was made to conceal their presence, which was well known to the United States Marshal stationed there. With hundreds of others, I have seen and talked with such fugitives in the college chapel. Of course they soon took a night train well-guarded to the next station on the U. G. R. R.

Clark, Charles M. The history of the thirty-ninth regiment Illinois Volunteer Veteran Infantry. Chicago, 1889. p. 490.

This discovery is the fruition of much desire and interest. It confirms boldly–with its affirmation that “hundreds of others”–that in Wheaton the Underground Railroad was operated in full-view and above ground. It also provides very strong evidence that can support a claim that Wheaton College was a stop on the Underground Railroad. It solidifies the beliefs of many that the abolitionists in Wheaton and at the Institute and College put into action their principles despite the legal and financial risks to person and institution.

Cook’s statement has several internal strengths that help bolster his claim. He does not make himself the center of the story and states that many in the town stood behind the abolitionist activities of the school. Cook makes clear that the U.S. Marshal was aware of the activities — a statement that could easily have been challenged if it were untrue and known to be untrue by the townspeople. Finally, he states that he was not the only one to see the fugitives, but that there were hundreds of others. This could be viewed as hyperbole, but the college’s enrollment (in all of its academic programs) can support this claim.