We Are Texas East Mall Project

The first cohort of Black undergraduates, who refer to themselves as the Precursors,
started classes in 1956.

Ursula Rogers/Voces Oral History Center.

Freeman L. Andrews

Freeman L. Andrews entered UT in 1959.

“My first day in classes, I was floored by the number of people in a large lecture hall… If you had 20 or 30 people in a lecture hall that was in a class, that was a lot. But to have more than 100 people in a lecture hall, that really floored me. And the vastness of the campus. And the coldness of the environment. Because you had been reduced to a number, seating charts, you’re going to sit in a seat number. And so, you weren’t a person anymore. It just seemed like you had been reduced a little bit over on that first day.”
Freeman Andrews

Interview

Photographed and interviewed on May 15, 2022 at the Moody School of Communications, UT Austin, Austin, Texas.

Learn more about

Precursors Oral Histories Project