The purpose of this study was to explore the dynamics of racial change through the landmark appointment of the Black social scientist, Allison Davis, to the faculty of the University of Chicago in 1942. As archival materials make clear, the appointment came to fruition through the collaboration of powerful White liberals at the Julius Rosenwald Fund and the University of Chicago, who seized upon a changing racial climate to challenge the color line and appoint an exemplary Black intellectual. This study aims to show how Davis's desegregating appointment succeeded in furthering progressive research and in demonstrating Blacks' abilities to a national audience, but ultimately accomplished little by way of combating the institutional racism within the academy and the larger society.