Kaye Johnson, a senior in industrial engineering, was sponsored by the Black Cultural Programming Committee and was elected homecoming queen by the student body in 1983. In a separate contest, Traci Drake, a freshman in chemical engineering, was crowned the black homecoming queen in a contest sponsored by UT black alumni. Shannon Whittington was crowned … Continued
The first African American to enroll in the Law School (1952) was Lincoln Anderson Blakeney. He stayed one quarter.
Dr. John Morrow of the History Department was the 1983–84 macebearer.
Mr. Hardy Liston Jr. was appointed assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs in 1970 and promoted to associate vice chancellor. He retired as associate vice chancellor in 1990. He came to UT from North Carolina A&T State University, where he was chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
August Washington, deputy director of safety and security at the University of Southern California in the greater Los Angeles area was appointed UT Chief of Police in June and began work on July 11, 2005.
Dr. Dhyana Ziegler of the Broadcasting Department was elected to the 1995 presidency of the Faculty Senate.
Jimmie Baxter was the first African American to hold this office. He was elected in 1969. When the votes were first counted, he had lost the election by two hundred votes, but the Student Tribunal declared the election to be invalid because of the requirement of placing Social Security numbers on the IBM ballots. In … Continued
In 1952 two of four students who had filed suit to gain admission to graduate and professional schools enrolled. Gene Mitchell Gray entered in the winter quarter as a graduate student in chemistry (although he took only undergraduate courses), and Lincoln Blakeney enrolled in the Law School. Blakeney, age 30 and former YMCA secretary who … Continued
James Craig and Audry Hardy were the first African Americans to compete for UT in track and field in 1967.
The board of trustees approved the admission of all races to all programs of the university at its fall 1960 meeting. Three African American students registered for the winter quarter 1961, which began January 3: Charles Edgar Blair, Willie Mae Gillespie, and Theotis Robinson Jr. Robinson and Blair were 18-year-old graduates of Austin High School, … Continued