Duke University is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first five black students to attend the school. Organizations are planning several events over the next nine months leading up to the anniversary this fall. Nat White, Jr. is one of the three surviving members of the group of five. He said on WUNC's "The State of Things" that he didn't know quite what to make of the experience as it happened.
"I think it was an unknown quantity except for the fact that there were people who worked there..and certainly was a segregated environment. I don't think people knew exactly what to expect. The entire four years I was at Duke, there was not a single other black student in any of my classes."
White and his four history-making classmates will be honored at an event this Friday at the Nasher Museum of Art. The event is sold out.
