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Presidents Patrick Donnelley, S.J. and Andrew Smith, S.J. brought landmark changes to the College after World War II. Both men viewed racial segregation as an ethical and moral dilemma, and it 1954, Smith presided over the enrollment of nine African-American students to the College. Fannie Motley was the first African-American graduate of the College in 1956. For 10 years, Spring Hill was the first and only integrated college in the Deep South, earning the respect of many and the ire or some. Spring Hill's leadership on integration is mentioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail. 

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