UT applied to the Tennessee Historical Commission for placement of two historical markers in 2012. The first, placed in late fall 2012, commemorated desegregation of the university and had been applied for as part of the 50th-year anniversary of the desegregation of the undergraduate student body. The second celebrated UT’s designation as Tennessee’s land-grant university and was applied for as part of UT’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the implementation of the Morrill Act of 1862. Both markers were placed on the Hill.
The desegregation marker says: 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 African Americans on November 18, 1960. African Americans Charles Edgar Blair, Willie Mae Gillespie, and Theotis Robinson, Jr. enrolled as undergraduates on January 4, 1961.
The land-grant marker says: In 1867, by resolution of the U.S. Congress, Tennessee became eligible to designate an institution to teach areas of learning related to agriculture and the mechanics arts and to receive the proceeds from the sale of federal land as prescribed by the Morrill Act of 1862. On January 16, 1869, East Tennessee University, renamed the University of Tennessee in 1879, received Land Grant University status. The institution accepted its designation January 19, 1869.