Desegregation of the University of Tennessee

Four Black applicants sued for admission to graduate and professional schools, and in 1952 two of them enrolled. Gene Mitchell Gray started in winter quarter as a chemistry graduate student, though he was taking only undergraduate courses. Lincoln Blakeney, a 30-year-old former YMCA secretary who had studied at the University of Wisconsin, entered the law school that spring and stayed one quarter. Undergraduate admission came in January 1961, after the trustees' vote in November 1960.

What the plaque says

Desegregation of the University of Tennessee During a federal lawsuit in 1952, the University of Tennessee opened enrollment in the graduate and law programs of the institution to African Americans. Gene Mitchell Gray enrolled in graduate school, and Lincoln Blakeney enrolled in the College of Law. Facing a legal challenge from African American applicant Theotis Robinson, Jr. to segregation in undergraduate programs, the Board of Trustees opened enrollment in all programs of the university to all races on November 18, 1960. African Americans Charles Edgar Blair, Willie Mae Gillespie, and Theotis Robinson, Jr. enrolled as undergraduates on January 4, 1961.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Blount Mansion — 0.7 mi
  The 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
• Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 1.9 mi
  Knoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
• Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 16 mi
  The 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.
• Museum of Appalachia — 17 mi
  John Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.

More markers nearby

• Land Grant University — steps away
• University of Tennessee — steps away
• Fort Byington — steps away
• James Rufus Agee — steps away