He decided to go to the University of Tennessee where he was awarded a graduate fellowship. Despite being located in the South, the University of Tennessee was an integrated educational institution, a new experience for Barry. He began doctoral chemistry studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, the only African American in the program. He learned that he was prohibited from tutoring white children, and his wife Blantie Evans was not allowed to work at the white school. He quit the program in favor of his new duties at SNCC.