A.P. Tureaud Jr. (AT): When I got to LSU, I was miserable. The students wouldn't speak to me. I think someone had decided that if they totally isolated me I would leave.

Steven Walkley (SW): Did you have a roommate?

AT: No, I was in a room, but there were students on either side and they took turns trying to keep me up at night with radios going, banging on the walls. If I walked in the showers everybody walked out, and the professors wouldn't touch my papers. One woman even said, "I've never taught a negro. How am I going to get through this term?"

So LSU, they have a Bengal tiger as their mascot, Mike the tiger. And Mike had a big cage and a swimming pool, and his place was right across from my dorm room. So I used to go out in the morning and talk to Mike. I'd say, "Mike, you're in jail and I'm in jail ... how we get out of this?"

So I'm sitting there talking to Mike and this pickup truck pulls up and I thought, “Oh boy, I hope this truck doesn't have a rifle rack on the back window, you know?" But a black man got out, he had on workers overalls, and he said, "Are you A.P. Tureaud?" and I said, "Yes," and he goes into the truck and brings out his 7-year-old son. And he says, "I want him to meet you because I want him to know that this is possible for him to come to this school thanks to you."

SW: Wow.

AT: So, after I composed myself, I said to him, "You've just ruined my day! I want to get out, and, and now I can't because I became the symbol of integration."

AT: I tell you, in retrospect, at 17, I grew up very quickly that year.