Attendance
The College News reported the 1931 conference as being “poorly attended…[with] less than a dozen Bryn Mawr students present at any time.” Among the attendees were Bryn Mawr College maids and at least two faculty members. While a complete count of participants has not been found, attendance seems to have been markedly lower than the 100 people present at the first Liberal Club one-day Economic Conference in 1930.1
As if with foresight, The College News published an advertisement several days before the 1931 conference urging students to attend.2 The ad mentions poor attendance at other campus cultural and intellectual events, writing:
“Has the college become poor in taste, we wonder--or only in purse?
N.B. [note well] --The conference is free!”
While the advertisement above emphasizes that the conference is free, the conference program circulated earlier states a registration fee of 1 dollar.3 Ultimately, after the conference, the Liberal Club disclosed a deficit of around 40 dollars.4
1. "Negro Intellectuals Stress Inequality of Opportunity for Race in All Fields," The College News, April 29, 1931.↩
2. "Economic Status of Negroes," The College News, April 22, 1931.↩
3. Bryn Mawr College. Program for Bryn Mawr College One-day Conference on The Economic Status of Negroes, April 25, 1931. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.↩
4. "Negro Intellectuals Stress Inequality of Opportunity for Race in All Fields," The College News, April 29, 1931.↩