UI black alumni mark Project 500's 40th anniversary
By Amy F. Reiter
Sunday November 9, 2008
Robin Scholz
Author Dr. Joy Ann Williamson-Lott, left, an alumna of the University of Illinois' College of Education, talks to Bobbie Dixon-Rivers of Chicago after Williamson-Lott signed a copy of her book, 'Black Power on Campus: the University of Illinois 1965-1975,' during an event Saturday to bring black alumni of the college together and celebrate the 40th anniversary of Project 500.
CHAMPAIGN – How time flies.
Forty years ago, Letti Burt-Butler scrambled down the halls of the University of Illinois, a girl of 17 from Chicago, a black student in the UI's pioneering Project 500, which brought minorities to campus in an effort to give all Illinois students access to equal educational opportunities.
When Burt-Butler left campus, she said, she was a woman. In her years at the UI, she had grown up. Those years weren't always easy, but they were so valuable, she said. They gave her the education to become a teacher herself, and she put that education to work in Chicago's inner-city schools.
"It was wonderful," she said. "Just to have the opportunity to come here. It was wonderful, but it was traumatic, too."
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