February 18, 2000

Hungarian Educators Try to Get Gypsies Into the Mainstream -- and Into College

By THERESA AGOVINO

Centuries of suspicion and mistreatment have left the ethnic minority largely unschooled and underemployed

Several months ago, Gyula Vamosi was sitting in his American-history class at the University of Pecs, listening to a discussion of Jim Crow laws. The professor drew some parallels between black people in the United States and Roma, as the Hungarian minority also known as Gypsies prefers to call itself. The reference seemed to be a cue for many of Mr. Vamosi's classmates to launch