Hundreds of people turned out at Emory on Wednesday as the school apologized for anti-Semitic actions at its dental school in the 1950s.
Between 1948 and 1961, 68 percent of Jewish students in the dental school failed or were held back.
"I got the letter. I was totally unaware. Nobody ever called me into their office -- the dean or anybody – to tell me that I wasn't doing well, I'd always done well," said Dr. Perry Brickman.
Brickman's efforts to tell his classmates' story led to "From Silence to Recognition," a documentary that premiered at Emory on Wednesday about the discrimination, and to the apology.
"After talking to all these people for so long, they all had a stigma attached to them. They had a scar that didn't show," said Brickman.
Many former students said they never expected the apology.
"I never thought in my entire lifetime I would ever hear it," said Dr. Harold Black.
Stanford Shulman was rejected by Emory's dental school. His brother Irving was accepted, but was one of so many Jewish students who flunked out. Irving didn't live to see this apology.
"At least the school is acknowledging it and there was a wrong and they're trying to right it,' said Shulman.
The apology wasn't the first for the university, During the school's 175th anniversary, Emory formally apologized for its role in slavery in its early years.
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Emory President Jack Wagner appears with Dr. Perry Brickman (left) during the premiere of a documentary on Wednesday, October 10, 2012.
