MEMPHIS, TN – Bertha Rogers Looney is the last surviving member of the “Memphis State Eight,” a group of Black students who broke the color barrier in the fall of 1959 when they enrolled at Memphis State University.
That year, 4,500 students had enrolled at the university. Among them were Looney (who enrolled as Bertha Rogers), Rose Blakney, Marvis L. Kneeland, Ralph Prater, Eleanor Gandy, Luther C. McClellan, John Simpson, and Sammie Burnett.
This was the fourth attempt by Black students to desegregate the university. Five tried and failed in 1954. Two others were denied admission to graduate school in 1957. And four were denied in 1958, including Kneeland, Prater and Burnett.
In her book, “We Dared to be First: Memoirs of a Memphis State Eight Trailblazer” (GrantHouse Publishers 2026), Looney captures in words and photographs her own trailblazing experience.
It took more than 30 years for Looney to enshrine her experience in print, having worked intermittently on the book. “I had to take care for my mom and my brother,” she said. “I was still writing, but I didn’t know what form the writing would take.”
Looney said George Grant of GrantHouse Publishers urged her and the others to write about their experiences in 2011 after one of the eight, Sammie Burnett, had died. “He said it would be good to have it as a record at the [current] University of Memphis,” she said.
Looney was keeping a record, but it wasn’t coming together just yet — even after the deaths of Blakney, Kneeland, Prater, Gandy, Simpson, and McClellan. Now, as the sole survivor, the book is finally published.
Looney, Blakney and Kneeland were graduates of Hamilton High School; Gandy and Prater, Douglass High School; McClellan and Simpson, Manassas High School; and Burnett, Booker T. Washington High School.
“It was difficult,” said Looney, recounting her experience. “I was surprised that I even went, because I kept telling Mr. (Jesse) Turner (Sr.), who was recruiting students along with the principals of the various high schools, that I didn’t want to be a part of that.”
She wanted to attend Fisk University or LeMoyne College instead. But Turner and other members of the NAACP, including attorneys A.W. Willis, H.T. Lockard, and with assistance from Atty. Constance Baker Motley, needed the group to desegregate the all-white university.
“My father wasn’t able to send me to Fisk,” she said. “I’d been accepted at LeMoyne; that’s where I was going. But Mr. Turner kept calling, calling, and calling. He said, ‘This will be the fourth attempt to get students into Memphis State.’”
Their first day of class was Sept.18, 1959. But nothing was copesthetic. “[It was] the isolation,” she said. “It was eight of us, and, of course, none of us were in the same classes together. [And] we were escorted to class by plainclothes police officers.”
But the eight Black students dared to be first. They succeeded at the behest and ingenuity of Turner, the NAACP, and the cadre of attorneys hellbent on challenging the cruel system of segregation.
Looney’s first major was math. Then she changed it to Business Education, and finally to English. “I didn’t do well as I wanted to in school. I didn’t function as well,” she said. “But I persevered. And I’m glad that I did.”
They all left indelible legacies at the university, which was renamed the University of Memphis in 1994. A historical marker on the campus sums up their experiences as the “Memphis State Eight.”
For copies of Bertha R. Looney’s book, contact her at blooney609@yahoo.com or the publisher at granthousepub@aol.com.
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