Prairie View A&M University & The Black experience in the digital archive

The mere establishment of Prairie A&M University in Southern Texas during the 1876 post civil war era speaks to the history surrounding the institution as it relates to the black experience. The era post civil war was a reconstruction period for the annihilated southern states that allowed for civil,political, and economic activist groups to pursue aggressively the aid of the federal government in their causes and public policies. The Texas constitution of 1876 addressed and established an agricultural and mechanical college all while guaranteeing “Separate schools shall be provided for the white and colored children, and impartial provisions shall be made for both.” As a direct result from these state constitutional provisions, as of August 14 , 1876, the Fifteenth Legislature established “Alta Vista Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth”. What many don’t know is the name Alta Vista originated from the land being purchased from a widow whose husband had previously owned slaves. Helen Marr Kirby, the widow of the late Col. Jared Ellison Kirby sold the plantation to the board of directors for the establishment of the institution. The name of the land was Alta Vista Plantation spanning 1388 acres. Ironically, as it relates to the black experience, the second oldest public institution of higher education in Texas and one of the earliest Historically Black Colleges and Universities was established and founded on a slave plantation. Texas A&M University was founded for the white children and Prairie View A&M University was founded for the colored children.

Julius Becton was an early president of the institution whos interview can be found in the archive. Julius Becton attended Prairie View A&M University and was involved with ROTC during his time there. Julius was a retired Lieutenant General and the first African American officer to command a Corps in the U.S. Army. Afterwards, Julius served as the fifth President of Prairie View A&M University. Julius served from December 15th, 1989 to August 31st, 1994. During his tenure at the university Becton took steps to improve fiscal operations while overseeing the reaffirmation team visit by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and the College of Nursing received a full eight-year accreditation from the National League of Nursing. Now in the clip in the archive Julius goes on to detail his selection as President of the University by the Board of Regents which is like the Board of Trustees or directors for any other institution. In the words of the Board, the institution needed a butt kicker, not an academician and Julius was a unanimous selection. Unbeknown to him at the time, immediately prior to his arrival, Prairie View was addressed by the legislature to get its act together and to deal with funding or a conservator would be implemented. This was followed with the appointment of Julius. Upon returning to the campus he already knew a third of the staff and faculty. Also he details how about twenty five percent were along the lines of “we don’t want a soldier as president” while the other 25 percent on the other hand were polar opposites with their opinions along the lines “we know Becton. He’s just the right person for it”.

The black experience as it relates to Prairie View stretches far in the digital archive. History Maker Alice Windom details her time at the institution of Prairie View Training school. The same school that had been previously mentioned earlier in this same passage she attended early on. I was able to take a look into the agricultural way of life surrounding Prairie View at the time as it was brought to life in her interview. Alice goes on to describe how her fellow classmates and peers were a part of the farming community in the area. The farm families were in some way under a government arrangement that allowed for harvesting and farming on land for a given amount of years without consent to sell. She goes on to conclude how things come back full circle with the farm family children growing up and becoming a part of the self  government system that had been established in the community. She brings up all these little details to allude to the point of how the farm kids felt a form of unfavor from the teachers at the training school in which Alice knew nothing of until her later departure. “I just bring that up because it's just a sociological fact that there, everyplace you go there's some kind of a pecking order. And, and you feel it more keenly when you're on the bottom on the, whatever pecking order that is.