When A. P. Tureaud Jr. came to LSU as the school’s first black undergraduate student, he didn’t anticipate the misery that awaited him.
The first day of the fall 1953 semester, Tureaud and his parents were met by LSU’s president, vice president, chancellor and police officers, who told them he had to go back home because they needed more paperwork to allow him to enter campus.
The following day, his family returned with the required documents and University officials escorted Tureaud to Tiger Stadium, where his dorm was located.
“It was a room for three,” Tureaud said. “But I had no experience.”
Tureaud left the University after only 55 days.
Leo Hamilton, a black 1973 University alumnus and 1977 University law school alumnus, said he had a better experience at the University, but racial tensions between white and black students were still prevalent.
“There were hostile white students, particularly the fraternity boys,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton attended a predominantly white high school that taught him how to deal with racial issues.
“It didn’t bother me that not everyone wanted me there,” Hamilton said.
There were fewer than 200 black students at LSU, Hamilton said.
“We were a close-knit group,” Hamilton said. “There were about two classes I was in where I wasn’t the only black student.”
Hamilton said he conducted a survey on bars and restaurants to show which establishments did not serve blacks, and “that was the closest time I came to going to jail.”
But the controversy didn’t taint his view of the University.
“Through it all, it didn’t sour me on LSU,” Hamilton said. “I’m still a Tiger. I bleed purple and gold.”
By the ’80s, race relations had improved drastically, according to Todd Schexnayder, a black 1981 University alumnus.
The big racial divide still existed in the Greek system, Schexnayder said.
“Racism existed in Greek organizations,” Schexnayder said. “They were institutions of racism because the legacies of their organizations were very segregated.”
There was a small number of black students on campus, and half of them were athletes, Schexnayder recalled.
“We were trailblazers in a sense,” Schexnayder said. “We were a novelty, not a threat.”
Black students knew each other well, which provided the students with a big support system.
“Most of us didn’t have cars, and most of us lived on campus,” Schexnayder said. “The dorms and cafeteria were the social hot spots on campus.”
Racism still lingered in the ’90s, according to Brandi Roberts, a black 1996 University alumna and associate director of finance at University Auxiliary Services.
“The first time I encountered racism was sophomore year,” Roberts said. “We had to get into groups, and an older white lady in my group told me, ‘Now I’m going to need you to do your part. We’re going to give you a small part. If you get a bad grade, I get a bad grade. Do you understand?'”
After that, she never felt comfortable talking in class.
“I was the only black person in 80 percent of my classes,” Roberts said. “In a sense, I always felt inferior.”
Roberts worked in Junior Division, which is now University College. When the department needed a picture depicting diversity, they always chose her.
“The good times I had were with my black friends,” Roberts said. “There weren’t many of us, so we were a close-knit group.”
Brandon Smith, a black 2005 University alumnus and community affairs liaison for the Office of Equity, Diversity and Community Outreach, said by the 2000s, talk of diversity in higher education gained momentum.
“Black students felt empowered to celebrate who they were, but not from a separating standpoint,” Smith said. “They felt it was an opportunity to celebrate LSU and to show how far we’ve come.”
Students elected Smith as speaker of Student Government Senate, but he didn’t find out he was the first black student to be elected to the position until he returned to the University five years later.
“It is nice it wasn’t breaking news that a black student won speaker,” Smith said. “It speaks for acceptance of all people at the University. LSU was and still is becoming a much more vibrant place where students from all walks of life can feel at home.”
The LSU student body is 10 percent African-American, according to Katrice Albert, vice provost for Equity, Diversity and Community Outreach.
The fall 2011 freshman class showed a significant increase in African-American enrollment, Albert said.
“It was the most diversity the University has ever seen,” she said. 
The University has the highest graduation rate of African-Americans in the state, including historically black colleges, Albert said.
Albert has been at the University for 10 years and said the push for diversity is not complete.
“Race relations have improved over time, but we are not where we need to be in a campus climate free from bias,” she said.
 
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Contact Claire Caillier at [email protected]