I just returned from my first visit to Tougaloo in 20 years. My emotions were intense as I entered the Tougaloo gate. As I drove by the chapel I remembered sitting there hearing speakers like Fannie Lou Hamer and Robert Kennedy. T hings just aren't the same, now. The environment surrounding Tougaloo is no longer threatening.
Many faculty choose to live off campus and feel very safe doing so.
This is good, of course, and shows the progress of 20 years, but there is also a bad side to it. Without the outside threat to concentrate minds, I sensed much divisiveness within the campus community, wasting energy once directed toward educating students. In the more than 20 years since I left Tougaloo I have honed my teaching skills from their raw beginnings. I have learned to use the many technological advances to present class materials better. I still teach at a predominantly black college, now in Ohio.