Culture
At the university it was extremely difficult for an African American student to feel comfortable with their situation. That is why the first African American student transferred after a year.
Theodore C Delaney provided insight into the culture at W&L through all of his interviews over the years. While everyone was partying and having a great time in the fraternities Ted was not given that opportunity because the existence of black fraternities was not there yet. He found it difficult for the terrible experiences at the school to get anyone's attention. Ted talked about not seeing many other black students attending the school but everyone had the same drive and ambition to be better students and come out of Washington and Lee successful. He spoke on the difficulty at the school but has now looked back at his time in light because of the opportunities that Washington and Lee has given him.
Washington and Lee University had made many great advances towards a better school during integration, but the students sometimes stood in the way. This was a Fancy Dress theme during the time of Integration that showed that the school still had a long way to go before getting better.
We found that some students were able to provide other insight into the problems going on at the time. They talked about walking the streets and passing rebel flags and seeing a whole different culture that was unheard of back in Washington DC. In another interview, the student talked about the difficulty of reality, while many of the white students at the time were worrying about what kind of car they would get or how they could become more popular, the black students were worried about paying the bills and being able to make it through college with some money to spare. They struggled to find white students that had the same hometown situation as them which made it even harder to relate to them. In the end, some of the black students felt alone and uncomfortable and were not entirey sure that they would have made the same choice about college if they had the knowledge they know today.