Tougaloo College was built on a plantation. It was so ironic that the same place that broke down African-Americans became a college that uplifted students. It reversed from a place where African-
Americans were nobody to a place where they were somebody.
Walking around the campus, I kept thinking of Maya Angelou’s phrase from the poem, “Still I Rise.” She wrote, “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”
At Tougaloo, I felt that phrase so strongly. Just by educating myself I have done that, I have lived the dream of my ancestors and many people who came before me.
Ashley Perry is a sophomore at UMD pursuing a psychology major.
