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Timeline
1950s
1960s
1970s
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Down the Corridor
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1960s
I remember one instance when there were about six of us riding in a Volkswagen and we had played some late-night prank, and the campus police stopped us and said, "Whoever it was, it was six blacks in a Volkswagen." And we said, "Say, man, don't you think there's another Volkswagen with six blacks in it?"
— UNT System Regent Charles Beatty ('76)
(first attended 1964-69) |
Fall 1961 — Amid threats of violence from out-of-towners, North Texas students organize a protest to desegregate Denton's Campus Theater.
1962 — James Gray ('66, '67 M.A.) joins the staff of the Campus Chat student newspaper.
I took gymnastics — I used to tumble — and you would get ready to take a shower, and it was very interesting because people would go to the other side of the shower. And I always thought, "This is very strange." As if the water that strikes me would somehow contaminate or hurt you. And I always looked at it as, "It's your problem. I'm not frightened of you. If you're frightened of me, that's your problem."
— James Gray |
1963 — Billy Harper ('65) becomes the first African American student selected to the One O'Clock Lab Band.
1964 — Wayman T. Dever ('64 Ed.D.) earns the first doctorate awarded to an African American at North Texas.
1968 — Students successfully organize chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, the first chartered African American Greek letter organizations at North Texas. Marva Hurt Bennett-Bland ('72) becomes the first African American cheerleader.
My white male cheerleader partner told me I kept moving when the yell was over. I told him, "It's called rhythm."
— Marva Hurt Bennett-Bland
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1969 — Theodore Lee Jr. ('57 M.Ed.) joins the dean of students office for the summer as the university's first African American administrator. Harve King is named associate dean of students for the long term. Wayman T. Dever in education and James Lark in music integrate the faculty. Students found a chapter of the NAACP and create the Afro-American Student Union organization.
Among the student body I was "Mean Dean King." That's what they called me, but that was an affectionate name. When I finished, that's where I got my glory, being retired and having my students come to me and say, "Dean, if it hadn't been for you I would have never made it through the university." I think that should permeate faculty members, administrators and everybody. We're here to help the students and there is no other reason to be here.
— Harve King (at North Texas 1969-86) |
1970s >>
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