After last year’s renaming of the University Village 1 and 2, many people learned about the history of Jessie Lou Arnold Pryor and Harold Conner Sr. However, many people have not heard of Beverly Polk Echols, the first Black graduate of UT Martin.
The school began its integration in 1961, and Pryor would be the first Black student to be enrolled at the university. Echols would transfer in later as a 16-year-old student coming from Lemoyne Owen College in Memphis, TN.
Echols stepped onto the campus not knowing anything about the school or its surrounding areas. She found herself being outcasted due to her not being like the students that she saw around her. However, the more time she spent on the campus the more familiar she would get.
Other students still were not quick to reach out and speak to her due to the unfamiliarity. They would only talk to her when they were alone together or felt like no one around them would judge them for speaking to a person of color.
Echols did not let this stop her from achieving her goal of graduating from college. Echols would graduate in 1964, and 50 years later she would be invited back to campus to be honored with her bench in the Unity Circle.
These three would set the path for UT Martin’s future as the years went along the campus and the student base would become more diverse. Students would begin to attend the university from all different ethnic backgrounds.
In recent years, UT Martin has seen a steady increase in enrollment. Along this, the school’s diversity has increased largely. More students of color have begun to populate the campus. About 25 percent of the student population is of color and more organizations are based around supporting said students.
These organizations include the Black Student Association, Men/Women of Excellence, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National Pan-Hellenic Council, etc.
It took many years for the school to become desegregated, but once the first three set a precedent, many others followed.
