University of Louisiana at Lafayatte
After four black students successfully sued in federal court to gain admission, Southwestern
Louisiana Institute, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, became the first state-supported,
previously all-white undergraduate college in the Deep South to desegregate. In the summer of
1954, John Harold Taylor became the first black student to enroll. That fall, 80 black students
attended SLI. The University later led the way in the desegregation of Louisiana college athletics
when, in 1966, it added three black student-athletes to its basketball team. Two years later,
black student-athletes joined the football team.