Gene Thibodeaux Interview
This October 24, 2021 interview with Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux covers his upbringing, time at Dartmouth, and life post-Dartmouth. Thibodeaux was born in a small hamlet called Mallet in southwest Louisiana. He was raised on forty acres with his siblings and parents. He attended what is now called Washington Marion High School, where he quickly rose to leadership. For Thibodeaux, education was the only way to escape becoming a laborer and living on a farm.
"The only way to get out of that environment was to be educated, and so that was my motivation. I knew that I wanted to make money. I knew that I wanted to contribute to society because I saw what others had become when you were not educated."
Thibodeaux ' 71
Thibodeaux's time at Dartmouth will be the focus of this exhibit. Prior to his enrollment at Dartmouth in 1967, only one or two black students matriculated each year. However, by the fall of 1969, ninety Black students matriculated at Dartmouth. When John G. Kemeny succeeded John Sloan Dickey as president in 1970, Dartmouth was facing civil rights, desegregation, women's liberation, and protests against the war in Vietnam. As such, Thibodeaux witnessed the peak of student activism at Dartmouth and the initial stages of coeducation before it was official.
The audio and a full PDF transcript of Thibodeaux's oral history can be found below. To download and listen to the full interview, please click Here.
Previous: In Order to Good, You Must First Do Well: The Transformation of Black Dartmouth -- Next: Dartmouth Black Activism