The Tuskegee Institute Summer Education Program, provided expanded services to fight illiteracy and promote education in twelve counties through a funded grant program. The program also produced a newspaper, “The T.I.S.E.P. Reporter”, covering the program activities at its various sites.

The Tuskegee Institute Summer Education Program (SEP) of 1965 was the second pillar of the 3T’s Movement.

This pillar was supported by grant funds from the U.S. Office of Equal Opportunity (OEO), an agency spearheading President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty.”

Throughout the summer of 1965, a group of college students bonded together in:

• a war on poverty,
• a war on unequal education,
• a war on social, economic disparities,
• and a war on inequity and marginalization.

Their weapons were service, leadership, courage, intellect, creativity, and dedication.

These college students provided inspiration, education and cultural enrichment in communities across 12 Black Belt Counties: Barbour, Bullock, Coosa, Crenshaw, Elmore, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Montgomery, Pike, Russell, and Jefferson.

During the most violent times in the Civil Rights movement, these TISEP college students helped to create a successful student education and community action program.

Over eight hundred students finished orientation and began their assignments as the summer began.

The majority of the students lived with Black families near their TISEP Centers in the counties.

Many of the families received threats of personal injury and property damage, as well as possible loss of jobs, and financial retaliation in an effort to keep them from hosting the TISEP students.

Some students lived on the campus and were transported to the counties. Others stayed on the campus to carry out their assignments in transportation, lunch preparation, the newspaper, (The TISEP Reporter) and the mobile vans.

Free Lunches

The TISEP Free Lunch project was responsible for preparing the daily lunches for the tutors and tutees during the early stages of the program. They prepared over four thousand sandwiches daily for the twelve counties. As the cafeterias opened in the local county schools, the required number of lunches and preparation time was reduced.

Chemistry Lab Unit and Science Project on Wheels

The TISEP Chemistry and Science project, Tutors Bess and John Stevens, used  their Chemistry knowledge to encourage students to enjoy chemistry and science overall. The Tutees at the TISEP centers were introduced to the atomic structure and periodic tables and were exposed to Chemistry experiments featuring different chemical reactions.

Mobile Art Project

The TISEP Mobile Art project encouraged the students to prepare and share their own designs as well as other art forms that would interest the Tutees. As they taught the Tutees, the paintings from the classes were added to their exhibits. Exhibitions were also held in the community and visitors were encouraged to draw simple sketches in watercolor and in oil.

Mobile Music Project

The TISEP Choir had thirty-three members under the direction of Tutor, Steve Fuller with assistance from Thomasine Davis and Albert Collins. The group soloist was Faith Jenerette who sang a variety of classical, spirituals, and German and Italian folk songs. The TISEP Choir sang compositions by Bach and Dawson as well as light popular selections and16th century classical pieces. The group also sang Freedom and Negro Spiritual. The music group also helped initiate student choir at many of the TISEP Centers in the counties.

Mobile Drama Project

The TISEP Mobile Drama project presented plays to entertain the Tutees as well as their families. The plays were educational. The Tutors discussed the plays before presentations and held question-and-answer sessions after the performances. The plays were typically one-acts and included works such as “Ugly Duckling” by AA Milne and “Hello Out There” by William Saroyan.

Mobile Lending Library Project

The purposes of our TISEP Library included providing textbooks, reference books, Negro History books, fictional and non-fictional reading materials for the Tutees, Community members, Tutors, and staff. The Library project also aided the Tutors with class assignments.

Mobile Distribution Project – Clothing and Small Appliances

The TISEP Distribution project was located in Thrasher Hall on the Tuskegee Institute Campus and many of its activities were conducted in a Mobile project using two vans.

The two Mobile vans visited all of the centers in the counties on a regular basis. Two additional Distributions projects were set up in Russell and Lee Counties and they operated on Thursdays of every week.