Brighten Corners and Widen Circles:
College Student Advocacy in the Sixties through the 3T’s Movement.

During the 1960s in Tuskegee, Alabama three student-led programs emerged out of the desire to fight poverty, provide quality education, and ensure fairness and justice for all. Discover the journey, impact and legacy of the 3T’s Movement. Learn more about it in the upcoming book Brighten Corners and Widen Circles by exploring this website and subscribing to our newsletter for updates.

Book Coming Soon

Brighten Corners and Widen Circles:
College Student Advocacy in the Sixties through the 3T’s Movement.

During the 1960s in Tuskegee, Alabama three student-led programs emerged out of the desire to fight poverty, provide quality education, and ensure fairness and justice for all. Discover the journey, impact and legacy of the 3T’s Movement. Learn more about it in the upcoming book Brighten Corners and Widen Circles by exploring this website and subscribing to our newsletter for updates.

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Welcome to the 3T’s Movement website! This website shares significant actions and accomplishments of college students of the sixties. We encourage you to follow Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s admonition:

“The Time is Always Right to Do What is Right.”

Every day of our lives, we can take action to help others.

The Time was Right in 1963 to create the 3Ts, a dynamic educational and service-based community action Movement.

George Washington Carver
Lewis Adams

The 3T’s Movement stands on the shoulders of Lewis Adams, himself a former enslaved person for whom “The Time was Right” to bring his dream of a school in Macon County for the children of formerly enslaved people into reality.

– By clicking on the “Learn More,” you will go directly to a National Park Service site that provides additional information about Lewis Adams.

Booker T. Washingotn
Booker T. Washington

The 3T’s Movement also stands on the shoulders of Booker T. Washington, another formerly enslaved person, who decided “The Time was Right” to leave Hampton Institute in Virginia and accept the challenge of creating and leading a Negro Normal School in Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama. (later Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, Tuskegee Institute, and Tuskegee University.)

– By clicking on the “Learn More,” you will go directly to a National Park Service site that provides additional information about Booker T. Washington.

A Letter to take Action…

“The Time was Right,” for Booker T. Washington to write his famous letter to George Washington Carver, another formerly enslaved person, ending with “I cannot offer you money, position or fame. The first two you have. The last, from the place you now occupy, you will no doubt achieve. These things I now ask you to give up. I offer you in their place – work – hard, hard work – the challenge of bringing people from degradation, poverty and waste to full manhood.”

George Washington Carver knew “The Time was Right” to leave Iowa and respond to Booker T. Washington’s letter by simply saying, “I am coming.” Tuskegee Institute and the world benefitted from the many miracles he created in his Laboratories with the peanut and soybean being the most famous.

The 3T’s Movement was rooted in trying always to do what is right. The movement reached out beyond the gates of Tuskegee Institute campus and followed in the footsteps of our historic earlier leaders and icons like Lewis Adams, Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

“Those who are happiest are those who do the most for others.”

Booker T. Washington
“Since new developments are the products of a creative mind, we must therefore stimulate and encourage that type of mind in every way possible.”
George Washington Carver

Do the Right Thing…

Our Real Life

Heroines and Heroes

2018 Reunion at Tuskegee University

A group photo of 3T's Movement participants returning to Tuskegee University for a Gala 2018 Reunion.

This year, 2024, marks sixty-one (61) years since the start of the 3T’s: Tuskegee Institute Community Action Corps (TICAC) in 1963; and fifty-nine (59) years since the start of the Tuskegee Institute Summer Education Program (TISEP) Summer 1965; and the Tuskegee Institute Community Education Program (TICEP). Fall 1965 to Spring 1968.

Brighten Corners and Widen Circles, tells the stories of young college students who took action to “Do the Right Thing” and though they faced many difficult challenges, they succeeded. It also shares some of the stories from the book about college students fighting for educational, social, and economic justice, especially for young Americans.

One of Tuskegee’s goals has always been service to people.

Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver relied on students to help farmers in Macon County and beyond.

Brighten Corners and Widen Circles describes how Tuskegee Institute students volunteered to form TICAC. How during the summer of 1965, they were joined by students from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, and students from 29 other colleges and universities across the United States, to form TISEP. And, how Tuskegee Institute students from almost every department and school continued to share their talents and dedication in TICEP.

7 Students gathered on steps smiling.
A student teaching near a chalkboard to children excitingly engaged.
Female student teaching children in a classroom next to chalkboard.
Student teaching to children in a church building
3 T's Movement participants gathered outside.

These young college students of the 3T’s Movement brought a spirit of optimism and personal values of service and commitment to others.

The young 3Ts heroines and heroes of the 60’s experienced many indignities, insults and sometimes threats to their lives. Because of their deep commitment to freedom and justice for all, they could not and did not walk away.

The 3T’s Movement positively impacted the lives of thousands of Alabama “Black Belt” children, youth, their parents, and communities.