Yergan Application

Item Information

Title:
Yergan Application
Description:
Max Yergen's application to the Secretarial Course of the International YMCA Training School (now Springfield College) from 1914.
Creator:
Yergan, Max, 1893-1975
Creator:
Springfield College
Contributor:
International YMCA Training School
Date:
May 7, 1914
Format:
Documents
Location:
Springfield College Archives and Special Collections
Collection (local):
College Archives Digital Collections
Series:
Student Files
Subjects:
Springfield College
Springfield College--Alumni and alumnae
Young Men's Christian Association of North America
Yergan, Max, 1893-1975
YMCA
YMCA Hall of Fame
Forms (Documents)
Places:
Massachusetts > Hampden (county) > Springfield
Link to Item:
http://cdm16122.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15370coll2/id/789
Terms of Use:
Text and images are owned, held, or licensed by Springfield College and are available for personal, non-commercial, and educational use, provided that ownership is properly cited. A credit line is required and should read: Courtesy of Springfield College, Babson Library, Archives and Special Collections. Any commercial use without written permission from Springfield College is strictly prohibited. Other individuals or entities other than, and in addition to, Springfield College may also own copyrights and other propriety rights. The publishing, exhibiting, or broadcasting party assumes all responsibility for clearing reproduction rights and for any infringement of United States copyright law.
Contact host institution for more information.
Publisher:
Springfield College
Language:
English
Notes:
Beginning as a student secretary while in college, Max Yergan worked to promote the YMCA movement at colleges in the Southwest. After graduating, he became a teacher in Raleigh, N.C., but reconvened his YMCA work as a war work secretary in 1916. He spent two years accompanying the Indian Troops in Dar-Es-Salaam, German East Africa, and then went to France to work with the African-American units of the Expeditionary Army. After the war, he returned to the United States and was ordained a minister. In 1921, he set out for South Africa to develop a YMCA for black South Africans. A fierce advocate for the rights of black South Africans, Yergan lectured before the white Student Christian Associations in South Africa on the inclusive nature of the Kingdom of God, forcing them to re-examine the racial conditions of their country. Yergan’s work got a boost when John D. Rockefeller Jr., donated $25,000 toward the construction of a YMCA building, which Yergan called the South African Training Center. In 1936, he returned to the United States and became the first teacher of African-American studies at City College of New York. Yergan was a controversial activist whose politics, over the years, shifted from communist to anti-communist, but his pioneering YMCA work in South Africa stands as his monumental legacy.
Identifier:
yergan-max-international-ymca-training-school-application