“We’re sorry, but we don’t accept Negroes.”
That’s what Theotis Robinson, the first African-American student to attend UT, was told when he applied for admission to the university in 1960.
Robinson spoke in the Hodges Auditorium on Wednesday afternoon about the challenges he faced as an African-American student during the Civil Rights Movement as well as the importance of remembering people in the past who paved the way for future success. Sponsored by the UT Office of Diversity and the Commission for Blacks, Robinson’s lecture was the first lecture of the “Trailblazer Series,” which showcases prominent African-Americans associated with UT.
“I grew up in an era when change was coming,” Robinson said. “Things were changing across the country and in the Southland.”
For many African-Americans in Knoxville, these changes included lunch counter sit-ins and movie theater stand-ins. But, for three of those residents, it included attending UT on January 4, 1961, as the first African-American students.
Robinson was the first to apply and challenge the university’s discriminatory admissions policy by meeting with university officials, including then-president Andy Holt and the UT Board of Trustees. At this meeting, Robinson made a promise to the board that would forever change the way the university admits students.
“You and the board need to understand that if the policy does not change, that I plan to sue the university,” Robinson countered in response to Holt’s statement that he could not guarantee the board would allow him to attend. “Being born in Tennessee and being a taxpayer in Tennessee, I had the right to attend the University of Tennessee.”
Due to his persistence and determination, Robinson was finally admitted to the university to study political science, paving the way for other African-Americans to be admitted to UT.
Hallerin Hilton Hill, moderator of the event and talk show host of WBIR’s “Anything is Possible,” said he hopes students who attended take away an appreciation for the trailblazers who came before them.
“To know their stories and to know their history helps us understand the price that was paid,” Hill said. “I think that when we understand that, it places a higher value on what was done.”
Tara Davis, chair of the community outreach and marketing committee for the Commission for Blacks, agreed with Hill, adding that a greater understanding of the people who helped bring about change in the past will encourage students to push for change in the present and the future.
“(Students are) stepping in the footsteps of someone who blazed a trail for them to even make it as far as they are,” Davis said. “(Students need) to use that appreciation to propel them to blaze their own trails.”
Robinson urged students to step outside of their comfort zones, promote a more diverse community and make an effort to talk to other students with different histories.
“Get to know people who don’t look like you,” he said. “You’re going to be participating in a world that, in most instances, is different from the one that you grew up in. And being able to garner those experiences makes you a better citizen … It just takes a willingness to do it.”
