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A partnership including ۿ۴ýUniversity is striving to preserve and highlight stories related to the African American struggle for equality in the 20th century — thanks to a recent $50,000 grant from the National Park Service.
The NPS African American Civil Rights grant was awarded to the ۿ۴ýInstitute Summer Education Program (TISEP)/ۿ۴ýInstitute Community Education Program (TICEP) Coordinating Committee — a volunteer program developed in the 1960s on Tuskegee’s campus by Dr. P.B. Phillips.
Under the two-year grant, first- and second-hand oral and community histories will be obtained from surviving TISEP/TICEP administrative, student and community program participants and the 13 Black Belt counties that participated from 1963 to 1968. The project will also identify and provide evidential information and materials regarding surviving TICEP centers and sites — in addition to using archival data from ۿ۴ýUniversity and St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota.
In 1965, TISEP received initial federal financial support and embarked on a mission of educational outreach and community service programming. In doing so, it offered learning and leadership programs that fostered personal growth and commitment to helping build an inclusive, just and fair society.
At the conclusion of its summer program, the organization took on a year-round focus and was renamed the ۿ۴ýInstitute Community Education Program (TICEP). Program coordinator Joan Burroughs said extending the university’s reach to influence segregated schools and communities — as well as social, economic and cultural opportunities, and ultimately the potential of black communities — was vital.
“During the 1960s, most ۿ۴ýۿ۴ý and a significant portion of its faculty were highly motivated actors in achieving racial equality, combating economic and social imbalance and injustice, and challenging the monumental, overarching and insidious injustice inspired by race hatred,” Burroughs recalled.
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