Alumni panel commemorates the 60th anniversary of desegregation at Tulane

In a milestone event, Tulane University marked the 60th anniversary of its integration with a panel featuring alumni who played pivotal roles in this transformative era. The event, titled “Commemorating 60 Years of Desegregation at Tulane: Uplifting Black Resistance, Liberation, and Joy,” was sponsored by the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life and the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

Coinciding with Homecoming, Reunions and Family Weekend on October 20, the gathering spotlighted prominent Black alumni whose leadership and courage have been instrumental in Tulane’s trajectory.

“I wanted to bring them on campus so others could hear their stories and experiences as some of the first Black students in their schools and programs.” — Carolyn Barber-Pierre, assistant vice president for Student Affairs and director of the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life

The event celebrated the current success of the panelists and their experiences paving the way for subsequent generations of Black students at Tulane. The eight trailblazing panelists were:

• Pearlie Elloie (SW *65) a member of the original lawsuit that ultimately helped lead to Tulane’s desegregation. Elloie has dedicated her entire professional career to improving the lives of young children and their families, having served as a leader of child and family development programs such as Head Start for over 45 years.
• Deidre Dumas Labat (NC ’66, G *69) is an accomplished scholar with a lifelong dedication to academic excellence, having served as a professor of biology, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and senior vice president for academic affairs.
• Judge Edwin Lombard (CS ’13) who retired this year after a 49-year career in public service. Lombard was 27 when he was elected as clerk of Orleans Criminal District Court, a job that required him to run local elections. After 29 years there, he was elected to the state appeals court bench, where he served for two decades. Lombard left Tulane just before his 1967 graduation, when it was allowable to attend law school without a college degree. He finished his last remaining credits in 2013.
• Harold Sylvester (A&S ’72) is a veteran actor and Emmy award-winning writer/producer and director. He was the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship to Tulane, and has starred in many high-profile films. He had recurring roles on popular television shows and spent three seasons as Griff on “Married…With Children.”
• Franz Hill (A&S ’81) is a healthcare professional with a background in biology and law, and an MBA in Health Services Management. Hill is CEO of Diagnostic Medical Technologies, a medical outsourcing company he founded in 1999. He also opened a nonprofit wing, SONOGRAMS UNLIMITED, in 2004, to provide medical services to people who cannot pay for them.
• Gwen Thompkins (NC ’87) has been the executive producer and host of the public radio program Music Inside Out, which showcases the varied musical landscape of Louisiana. She was the longtime senior editor of NPR’s Weekend Edition and later NPR’s East Africa bureau chief, based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a New Orleans-based journalist, writer and PhD student in history at Tulane.
• Dr. Ernest Sneed (A&S ’86) served as assistant dean of students at Tulane School of Medicine and is currently staff physician at the Southeastern Louisiana Veterans Health System.
• Alexandria Williams-Reich (SLA ’17) currently works as a mental health therapist and full-spectrum doula in Houston. While a student at Tulane, she was very active in many organizations, including serving on the executive board of Students Organizing Against Racism and the Tulane Black Student Union, and was a Tulane 34 honoree in 2017. In 2015, she was one of the lead organizers of the Call for Unity, a student-led protest movement to call attention to DEI efforts on campus.
  

The panel was co-moderated by Carolyn Barber-Pierre, assistant vice president for Student Affairs and director of the Carolyn Barber-Pierre Center for Intercultural Life, and Wilfred Wright, current president of the Tulane Black Student Union and a member of the Class of 2024.

Barber-Pierre was heavily involved in the 50th anniversary celebration a decade ago, and as part of that remembrance, she interviewed many of the people involved with desegregation and Black history at Tulane. Therefore, she knew firsthand the impact of their words.

“I wanted to bring them on campus so others could hear their stories and experiences as some of the first Black students in their schools and programs,” says Barber-Pierre.

“We wanted our current students, faculty and staff to know a little bit about the history of how we integrated and the challenges those first students faced, and then the challenges of today’s Black students,” Barber-Pierre says, adding that programs like the panel work in conjunction with the Tulane University History Project to examine Tulane’s past.

Barber-Pierre said she is optimistic about EDI efforts at Tulane. She gives credit to the university’s administration “for moving these issues forward and challenging us to be a better institution for all of our communities at Tulane."

She said that Tulane alumni who want to get more involved in EDI efforts can help with sharing opportunities for jobs, internships or mentorships, or they can support offices or programs and services that create better equity across the university. Also, alumni can join an alumni affinity group, such as the Black Alumni Network of Tulane (BANTU) or attend next year’s Black Alumni Weekend on campus in February.

Click here to learn more about equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts under President Michael Fitts and his Strategy for Tomorrow, a university-wide strategic planning process to guide the university’s equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism initiatives from July 1, 2022, through July 1, 2027.