Mississippi is planning to unveil a historical marker honoring the first Black students at the Mississippi University for Women. Laverne Greene-Leech, Diane Hardy and Barbara Turner Bankhead graduated in 1966 from Hunt High School in Columbus. The three 17-year-olds arrived that fall at what was then the Mississippi State College for Women.
COLUMBUS, Miss. — In the spring of 1966, Laverne Greene-Leech, along with her best friend, Diane Hardy, and Barbara Turner Bankhead had just graduated from Hunt High School, where Black students attended the segregated school system in Columbus, Mississippi.
Greene-Leech’s plan was to go to Mississippi Valley State, one of Mississippi’s three historically black colleges and universities. Hardy, however, planned to apply to MSCW “just to see their reaction,” Greene-Leech recalled. She and Turner decided to apply also, as a show of support for their friend. She said her parents weren’t too excited about that decision.
“Students then were required to live on campus, but they told us there was no place for us to stay, so we went back and forth from home,” Greene-Leech said. “They had a cafeteria, but we weren’t allowed to eat there. We had to move off the sidewalks to let the white student pass.”Greene-Leech said there were a few white students who were accepting, but it was a handful of teachers who made The W tolerable, at least for a while.
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