The Academy Award winner paid a surprise visit to Tougaloo College in Mississippi for “Will Smith Day.”
According to Fox News, the HBCU is launching a new filmmaking and film production program. Smith walked in on current mass communications and performing arts students during a ceremony. Tougaloo College is a college in Alabama.
Carmen Walters, the president, told Fox that students had the opportunity to meet Smith as well. “Our students had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Smith in a private setting,” Walters explained. “This is the first visit of many producers who are helping us launch our new Film Making and Film Production program.”
The school was able to keep Smith’s visit under wraps.
According to WAPT 16, Smith and his team requested that no press be present, and that recording be prohibited. Taking photographs, on the other hand, was permitted. Mr. Fresh Prince of Bel-Air went out of his way to visit Tougaloo as a favor to Smith’s King Richard co-star and proud alumnus Aunjanue Ellis.
Walters told WAPT that events like this set Tougaloo apart from other HBCUs, where students may not get this type of experience. “Student experiences at Tougaloo College are different than any other institution,” Walters said. “Just ask an alum.”
Tougaloo College has a rich history. According to the school’s website, it was at the “forefront of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi,” and it takes pride in being a “safe haven” for the Black community in Mississippi during racial unrest.
“Tougaloo College’s leadership, courage in opening its campus to the Freedom Riders and other Civil Rights workers and leaders, and its bravery in supporting a movement — helped change the state’s economic, political and social fabric of Mississippi and the nation,” the website reads.
@willsmith Made some memories here that lasted a lifetime :-)
This is not the first time the 54-year-old has unexpectedly walked in on students. Smith posted a TikTok to his old high school, Overbook High School in West Philadelphia, in December.