About 300 people attended an event Tuesday night to hear local civil rights activists and UF's first black graduates speak about their struggles in the Deep South and the changing times.
Talk revolved around experiences at UF in the 1960s and the struggles and trials of living in a southern, predominately white town.
Other community leaders also stopped by, including UF President Bernie Machen and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who appeared via video and spoke on the importance of President Barack Obama's recent election.
Machen said when UF became integrated in the 1960s, no one bothered to keep track of the first black graduates. A project was created to find and contact these people, some of whom didn't attend their own graduation because of the institutionalized racism that was taking place at the time.
The event, titled "Florida Black History: Where We Stand in the Age of Barack Obama," was part of UF's Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.
Joel Buchanan, one of the original students to desegregate Gainesville High School, moderated the panel of four speakers. "In 1964 my life changed," said Buchanan, speaking of his transfer to the high school for his junior year. Buchanan was one of the first three black students to attend Gainesville High School. The panel was made of former UF student Evelyn Mickle, UF professors Sherry DuPree and Gwendolyn Simmons, as well as former UF student and community activist Dan Harmeling.
Mickle, a retired nurse, was the first black person to graduate from UF's College of Nursing, starting in 1967. Mickle said she did not tell people she was a UF graduate until about the '80s because of the way she was treated while attending.
"The environment was not very warm," she said. "I thought professors and other students would embrace another student, but I found support from the staff at the hospital, like custodians and nurses' assistants."
The panel was asked four questions by Buchanan, but because of time constraints only two were answered completely. The event, held at UF Smathers Library East, was punctuated by performances from UF's Gospel Choir, Madear's Kids, an interruptive dance group of young black students and readings by UF's Black Student Union Leadership Council.
Paul Oritz, director of the oral history program, said the event was intended to preserve past stories and struggles.
"We're trying to keep the dialogue alive," Ortiz said." And tonight I think the history of these people and this school really came alive."
