When the university was still called the Hampton Institute in 1927, students protested racist Jim Crow policies on campus and demanded the establishment of an NAACP chapter. They refused to sing plantation melodies to entertain white donors, boycotted class and locked their dorm rooms to protest room inspections. Students only agreed to come to class after being promised no discipline would be inflicted. However, when that promise was broken, the student strike resumed and the institute was closed for two weeks.
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When the school reopened, students who participated in the strike were not allowed to enter unless they pledged their loyalty to the institution and, essentially, the hostile, racist climate to which they were subjected.