University of Tennessee Martin's First Black Student Remembers Challenges

University of Tennessee Martin's First Black Student Remembers Challenges: Jessie Pryor remembers the isolation of being the first Black student to enroll at the University of Tennessee Martin.

In a ceremony on Thursday marking 50 years of integration, Pryor recalled her first day of class in 1961, when she was just 16 years old.

“It wasn't welcoming,” Pryor said. “I sat in the second row to the front and when the other students walked in, they didn't sit. They stood against the wall around the perimeter. When the professor walked in, he said ‘I've been hired to teach, and I don't care if I teach one student or 100 students.’ ”

After that, the other students sat down, but they left the desks around Pryor empty, according to The Jackson Sun.