Contributed – Chloe Campbell
During homecoming celebrations, plans are in place to honor a historic moment of hope from the late 1950s. Oct. 25 at 10 a.m. in Borchuck Plaza, ETSU will unveil a memorial dedicated to the first five Black students who desegregated the school.
“Symbols can be powerful, and a symbol in the heart of campus about bravery, about fortitude, about determination, and about the willpower to change the arch of history. I think it will serve as a powerful reminder for us all about the transformative role that our institution plays in the community,” ETSU President Brian Noland said.
Efforts to memorialize the impact of the first five Black students to attend ETSU began in 2013 with the unveiling of the fountain. Although plaques were added to the Borchuck Plaza memorial to clarify the fountain’s purpose, many students remain unaware of its significance. Some students have even been observed sitting, playing, and even urinating on the fountain at times, many not realizing what they are disrespecting.
When the current memorial fountain was in disrepair due to a cold snap, the university put together a committee to reenvision the space in Borchuck Plaza. The fountain is now repaired, but the committee still moved forward with the new memorial—moving toward a new addition, rather than a replacement.
The committee, led by Keith Johnson, selected Detroit-based sculptor Austen Brantley to design the new memorial. The design is a bronze statue of the first five Black students to integrate into the school. Those students were Eugene Caruthers, Elizabeth Watkins Crawford, Clarence McKinney, George L. Nichols and Mary Luellen Owens Wagner. Eugene Caruthers was the first student to be integrated in 1956, and two years later, the others joined him in desegregating the school.
Nichols continues to be involved in the memorial process, discussing with Noland his experience at ETSU. Noland has shared that Nichols recalls vividly the environment of bitterness and division during the time of desegregation. Noland specifically referenced the infamous pushback in Little Rock, Arkansas, and when Governor George Wallace at the University of Alabama claimed the school would not integrate.
“That was not the case here. Integration at ETSU happened without incident, but there were still significant challenges that those individuals had to navigate,” said Noland.
Noland also reflected on the institution now.
“Fast forward to 2025, we’re not a perfect institution and this isn’t a perfect nation, but I think we’ve made great strides as a university,” he said. “And those strides are reflected in programs, they’re reflected in enrollment, but they’re also reflected in the impact that the receipt of a degree has had on generations of students who have walked across the stage from the time that Mr. Nichols walked across the stage until now.”
The memorial unveiling comes as ETSU continues to navigate discussions about diversity and inclusion on campus. In the past year, the university has undergone changes to the former Mary V. Jordan Multicultural Center and the former Patricia Robertson Pride Center to comply with an executive order from the Trump administration.
Despite recent changes, the bronze memorial will stand as a permanent reminder of ETSU’s peaceful desegregation in the late 1950s, which Noland said occurred without the violent resistance seen at other Southern universities during the same era.
