The black experience: past, present, and future Page 1

This is a speech delivered by Elizabeth Jo Ann Smart at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) Neo-Black Society's Reunion Weekend on February 23, 1985. Smart was one of the first two black students admitted to UNCG's precursor, the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, in 1956. In the speech, Smart recalls her youth and her experiences upon applying to the university, including the entrance exam introduced at the same time as desegregation, housing arrangements on campus—the two were assigned a whole wing of a dorm so that white students would not have to share a bathroom with them—and other incidents. She discusses segregated facilities on Tate Street, adjacent to the campus, and social interaction that was limited to nearby all-black campuses.