Born to Serve: A History of Texas Southern University by Merline Pitre (review)

Texas Southern University (TSU) was established by the Texas Legislature in an effort to stave off the lawsuit against segregated graduate and professional schools brought by Heman Sweatt and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1946. Sweatt had been denied admission to the University of Texas School of Law because he was African American, and as his suit made its way through the lower courts, the Texas legislature tried to establish segregated law schools within the state to answer Sweatt’s demand for equal educational opportunity.

Merline Pitre, a prominent historian of African American Texans’ struggle for civil rights in the first part of the twentieth century and professor and administrator at Texas Southern University, provides first-hand insight into the history of the institution. Although there have been several other books on the history of Texas Southern University—notably Amlicar Shabazz’s Advancing Democracy: African Americans and the Struggle for Access and Equity in Higher Education in Texas (University of North Carolina Press, 2004) and Gary Lavergne’s Before Brown: Heman Marion Sweatt, Thurgood Marshall, and the Long Road to Justice (University of Texas Press, 2011)—Pitre’s book provides a comprehensive history of the development of African American higher education in Texas and TSU’s history in particular. While Shabazz focuses on the efforts of graduate students to integrate the state’s higher education institutions, and Lavergne traces the legal efforts of Sweatt and the NAACP, through the courts, Pitre provides an administrative history of the institution.

Pitre covers every TSU administration, from that of Ralphael O. Lanier and Samuel M. Nabrit to Priscilla D. Slade’s indictment for financial malfeasance and John M. Rudley’s efforts to restore accountability to the institution. While some may question an institutional approach to history, the author critically evaluates the concerns and actions of each administration in the historical context of the state and especially of African American civil rights. This approach is also important because it allows education historians to consider the institution through an administrative lens. Pitre explains that the “web of multiple constituencies” that presidents have had to “work with and often overcome to gain acceptance and favor for the university often placed them in precarious positions” (210). These include forces outside the university (accrediting agencies, the state legislature, community leaders, and alumni) and stakeholders within the university (faculty, staff, and students). Additionally, presidents have to deal with other institutions and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board for program approval. Furthermore, executives are expected to set and implement goals and a vision for their universities. At Texas Southern, presidents found that changes they initiated often challenged entrenched traditions and practices, leading to clashes and sometimes their dismissal.

Pitre’s history also critically analyzes the rivalry and conflict that emerged in the black academic community over the role of TSU and Prairie View A&M University. She also examines the role of students in removing the phrase “for Negroes” from TSU’s name in 1951. She also effectively covers the background and results of the so-called riots of mid-May 1967 far beyond the traditional narrative. Her description of how participating in federal programs such as Model Cities and securing a designation from the state as a “special purpose institution of higher education for urban programming” (91) ultimately tied the university more closely to its urban location. Finally, Pitre’s work demonstrates the agency of the African American community and concludes, “African Americans in general, and black Texans in particular, have used self-determined strategies to overcome Jim Crow laws and practices in education” (209). This builds upon and expands James Anderson’s thesis in The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860–1935 (University of North Carolina Press, 1988). Born to Serve is a wonderful addition to the story of African American education in Texas.