Still, most black newspapers supported him because he spent several years raising a million dollar endowment fund for the university.
In particular, he decried McKenzie's practice of taking black female students down back alleys to sing in white men's clubs to raise money for the university.
In the fall, Du Bois ran several articles in The Crisis, the NAACP magazine that he edited, with direct information from conditions on campus from a student named George Streator.
McKenzie agreed initially to the recommended suggestions of the board of trustees, but eventually refused to cooperate with the student leaders.
In many black and white communities opinions on the issue ran along racial lines In March, 1925, some of the male students again protested.
In particular, they were looking for six men on a list that McKenzie provided (those who signed the original protest the previous fall, including Streator).
The idea of brutal policemen descending on a peaceful campus was what finally changed public opinion, particularly through black newspaper coverage, in favor of the students.
Students demanded a greater role in administrative decisions, alumni representation on the board of trustees, and more personal freedom.