“The struggle for survival”: Last years of Adams College, 1953–1956

Abstract

This is how politician and writer Alan Paton commented on the 1956 closure of the missionary founded Adams College by the government’s Department of Native Affairs (DNA). This very strong denunciation of apartheid, from a Christian-Protestant ‘moralistic’ standpoint, appears in the Foreword of the autobiographical The Jack Grant Story by Jack Grant, the last Principal of Adams College which has a section detailing events leading up to what he described as ‘the liquidation’ of the College. Paton’s sentiments found resonance amongst many ‘liberal’ Christians involved with mission schools. What the administrators of Adams referred to as a ‘take over’ was facilitated by the passing of the Bantu Education Act of 1953. The objectives of the Act and the system of apartheid as a whole were denounced as a ‘perversion’ and misinterpretation of Christianity and Protestantism by the ‘Christian nationalists’ at the helm of the new administration. Grant’s description of the ‘take over’ as ‘The ‘liquidation of Adams College’ was a literal explanation of the event. Operating as an Association, registered under the Companies Act, when it closed down, the College had to transfer its assets and officially cease to exist.