Faye Ruff Houston grew up in Columbia, SC, where she graduated from Booker T. Washington High School as class valedictorian. She enrolled at Clemson University in 1967 as a math major. The decision to attend Clemson was not her own. Instead, it was made for her. High School counselors met with her parents and explained that “a door had been opened” and they needed Black students to attend Clemson University. They sought students who could not only attend Clemson, but finish – and she had been chosen to go.
Though disappointed, Houston, who had marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in high school, accepted the challenge and understood the need to diversify Clemson in the context of the larger civil rights struggle.
In this interview, she discusses her early struggles in the classroom, how she overcame them, and campus life in general. She served as the first Black member on Clemson’s debate team, participated in the Student League for Black Identity, and performed with the Clemson Players, a theater group.
Such activities helped Houston cope and find a sense of belonging on campus where she recalled name-calling, being spat on, being ignored, Dixie being played and the 1969 boycott during which Black students left campus due to volatile race relations.