Description: Eleanor Saunders Towns eyes were initially set on Howard University, but an administrative error redirected her to the University of Illinois in 1961. Towns was a State Champion High School Debater, so she decided to study Drama with plans on teaching speech. She recounts her experience as one of around 200 black students on campus as unique compared to … Read More
Carol Easton Lee (Safisha Madhubuti)
Description: Carol Easton Lee (Safisha Madhubuti) first went off to college from the Chicago Public School System to Illinois Wesleyan University in 1962. She visited the University of Illinois for Homecoming freshman year and recalls that the 200 black students on campus, which far outpaced the 10 on the Wesleyan Campus, made her feel in heaven and she transferred to the U … Read More
Beverly Effort Biggs
Description: Born and raised in Chicago, Beverly Effort Biggs applied to Illinois at the encouragement of a high school teacher in 1961. Up until then, her educational environments had been majority – black. She came to Illinois at the young age of 16 and found a sense of belonging through the Black Greek system by joining Delta Sigma Theta her junior … Read More