Southern Student Exchange Program participants share insights

February 16, 1966

Southern Student Exchange Program participants share insights

In a discussion in Neilson Browsing Room, the returning Smith students from the Southern Student Exchange shared what they had learned in their week at a Southern school. They compared the views of Southern white students and Southern black students on the North, civil rights and each other. They described surprise at finding “passive acceptance” of black people on the part of the Southern white students, although they noted that those students lacked contact and friendships with black people of their own economic and academic status. They also described a variety of views on civil rights among Southern black students, although they affirmed that the majority “felt that they could best help themselves by getting a good education” and limited their civil rights movement participation to vacations.

SSE Participants Discuss South; Opinions of North, Civil Rights

[Last updated on October 11, 2018]