Modeling Squad

One of the most popular extracurricular organizations on campus at the time was the Modeling Squad, which participated in fashion shows for local merchants and reviews on campus. Members had the opportunity to travel around the country or even abroad on their annual trip.

Initiates were trained in modeling by seasoned members. Susie Shelton (1974) tried out for the Modeling Squad but was ignored rather than mentored. Shelton recounts:

“There was nobody there to teach us (Shelton and Georgia Blunt) how to walk… they all huddled together and talked to each other and told them [the white applicants] what to do. But we didn’t have nobody tell us what to do. We just did what we saw.”

The first black member of the Modeling Squad to appear in the Meh Lady (the university yearbook) was in 1976 (identity unknown).

Black students participated in other special interest groups from the late 1960s onward.

 

 

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Modeling Squad, 1976.
Mississippi University for Women Archives. Meh Lady Collection.

Susie Shelton Oral History.
Billups-Garth Archives, Columbus-Lowndes Public Library.