{"id":2139,"date":"2012-02-23T10:48:12","date_gmt":"2012-02-23T10:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.lib.utc.edu\/archivist\/?p=2139"},"modified":"2013-09-13T19:07:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-13T19:07:02","slug":"desegregating-the-university-of-chattanooga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/2012\/02\/23\/desegregating-the-university-of-chattanooga\/","title":{"rendered":"Desegregating the University of Chattanooga"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/files\/2013\/09\/special-collections-desegregation.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-2150\" title=\"1971 UTC Yearbook photo\" alt=\"1971 UTC Yearbook photo\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.lib.utc.edu\/archivist\/files\/2012\/02\/1971-Yearbook-11-1024x764.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"373\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As <a href=\"http:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/black-history-month\">Black History Month<\/a> is celebrated and observed, we turn our focus to an important milestone in the history of <strong>UTC<\/strong>: desegregating the campus<strong><\/strong>.\u00a0 Integration was slow at higher education institutions across the South, and there was some resistance as schools integrated African-American students into their student bodies. In the mid-1960s, when our university was not yet a part of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tennessee.edu\/\">UT system<\/a>, the process of desegregation began.<\/p>\n<p>Some African-Americans had attempted to enroll at the university on its opening day in <strong>1886<\/strong>, and had good reason to believe they\u2019d be welcome, as the school was partially sponsored by the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Freedmen%27s_Aid_Society\">Freedmen\u2019s Aid Society<\/a>.\u00a0 They were not admitted, however, and the unofficial policy of declining African-Americans would last for over <strong>seventy-five years<\/strong>. In the early 1960s, the <strong>University of Chattanooga<\/strong>, then led by President Leroy Martin, announced that the school would integrate-a move that was received positively by most, including the university newspaper, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.utcecho.com\/\">The Echo<\/a>.\u00a0 The university first admitted a graduate student, <a href=\"http:\/\/alumnus.tennessee.edu\/2011\/09\/alumni-bridge-the-uc-and-utc-eras\/\">Horace Traylor<\/a> in the mid 1960s and, over the next few years, African-American under-graduates were also admitted.<\/p>\n<p>The integration process at <strong>UTC<\/strong> will be documented in a special event next Tuesday night, February 28 at 7pm in the University Center Auditorium. At this event, a documentary film, \u201c<strong>Reaching the Light: The Story of Desegregation of the University of Chattanooga<\/strong>\u201d will premier and the experiences of the first African-American students at the university will finally be told. More information, about the premier can be found here: <a href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2012\/02\/university-presents-reaching-the-light-the-story-of-desegregation-of-the-university-of-chattanooga\/\">Documentary Premier.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Post written by Steve Cox and Chapel Cowden.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Black History Month is celebrated and observed, we turn our focus to an important milestone in the history of UTC: desegregating the campus.\u00a0 Integration was slow at higher education institutions across the South, and there was some resistance as schools integrated African-American students into their student bodies. In the mid-1960s, when our university was&hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><span><a class=\"more-link button text\" href=\"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/library\/2012\/02\/23\/desegregating-the-university-of-chattanooga\/\"><span>Continue Reading <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":414,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4922],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-special-collections","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Desegregating the University of Chattanooga - UTC Library Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Desegregating the University of Chattanooga - UTC Library Archive: Jul 2007 - Oct 2025\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As Black History Month is celebrated and observed, we turn our focus to an important milestone in the history of UTC: desegregating the campus.\u00a0 Integration was slow at higher education institutions across the South, and there was some resistance as schools integrated African-American students into their student bodies. 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