Texas Southern University
Texas Southern University is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas, United States. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Texas Southern University is an important institution in Houston's Third Ward. Alvia Wardlaw of Cite: The Architecture + Design Review of Houston wrote that the university serves as "the cultural and community center of" the Third Ward area where it is located, in addition to being its university. The university also serves as a notable economic resource for Greater Houston, contributing over $500 million to the region's gross sales and being directly and indirectly responsible for over 3,000 jobs.
Texas Southern University intercollegiate sports teams, the Tigers, compete in NCAA Division I and the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Texas Southern is home of the Ocean of Soul marching band.
History
On March 7, 1927, the Houston Independent School District board resolved to establish junior colleges for each race, as the state was racially segregated in all public facilities. The resolution created Houston Junior College, which later became the University of Houston, and Houston Colored Junior College, which first held classes at Jack Yates High School during the evenings. The school's name was later changed to Houston College for Negroes in 1934.In February 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, an African American man, applied to the University of Texas School of Law. He was denied admission because of race, and subsequently filed suit in Sweatt v. Painter. The state had no law school for African Americans. To avoid integrating the University of Texas Law School, the state of Texas made several offers to Heman Marion Sweatt to keep him from going to court. They offered to establish the Texas State University of Negroes which would include a law school. Some black leaders welcomed the idea of having another state supported university in Texas, while many others felt as though the university was created to solely avoid the integration of the University of Texas, as well as other white institutions. In the end, they did not grant Sweatt a writ of mandamus to attend the University of Texas. Instead the trial court granted a continuance for six months to allow the state time to create a law school for blacks.
As a result, the Fiftieth Texas Legislature passed Texas Senate Bill 140 on March 3, 1947, authorizing and funding the creation of Texas State University for Negroes as the first state university to be located in Houston. The school was established to serve African Americans in Texas and offer them fields of study comparable to those available to white Texans. The state took over the Houston Independent School District -run Houston College for Negroes as a basis for the new university. Houston College moved to the present site, which was donated by Hugh Roy Cullen. It had one permanent building and an existing faculty and students. The new university was charged with teaching "pharmacy, dentistry, arts and sciences, journalism, education, literature, law, medicine and other professional courses." The legislature stipulated that "these courses shall be equivalent to those offered at other institutions of this type supported by the State of Texas."
Given the differences in facilities and intangibles, such as the distance of the new school from Austin, the University of Texas School of Law, and other law students, the United States Supreme Court ruled the new facility did not satisfy "separate but equal" provisions. It ruled that African Americans must also be admitted to the University of Texas Law School at Austin. See Sweatt v. Painter.
In March 1960, Texas Southern University students organized Houston's first sit-in at the Weingarten's lunch counter located at 4110 Almeda. The success of their efforts inspired more sit-ins throughout the city, which, within months, led to the desegregation of many of Houston's public establishments. A historical marker commissioned by the Texas Historical Commission stands on the property of the first sit-in to commemorate the courageous acts of those TSU students. That property is now a U.S. Post Office. TSU journalism professor Serbino Sandifer-Walker worked for nearly two years with the Texas Historical Commission, the original students who led the march, and many other stakeholders, to have the historic marker designated on March 4, 2010, the fiftieth anniversary of that sit-in.
On May 17, 1967, it was reported that students at TSU rioted on campus. When officers responded thousands of shots were fired and there were injuries on both sides including a death of a police officer. Nearly 500 students were arrested. Although media sources reported this as a riot, there were no reports of looting, destruction of property, or resistance of any arrest. Furthermore, the reports failed to mention the prior invasion of police officers on campus, or the reports of students getting roughed up on campus. The police raid caused over $10,000 of damage and it was reported over 3,000 shots were fired into the Lanier dormitory. There was little coverage that, the five students whom were charged with conspiracy and incitement of riot were all exonerated due to lack of evidence, or that the police officer died not from student fire, but the ricochet of Houston Police Department bullets.
A Democratic presidential debate took place on September 12, 2019, in TSU's Health and Physical Education Arena.
The university drew national attention in early 2020 when the Governor of Texas appointed board of trustees targeted the university's sitting president and changed its bylaws to give the board the power to remove anyone employed by the university. The board first suspended and then fired president Austin Lane, alleging that he failed to inform them about allegations of fraud committed by a former assistant dean at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Lane disputed the allegations. Just prior to removing Lane, the board also changed its bylaws to allow it to "approve the termination of any position" at the university, a change that drew condemnation from several university governance experts as inappropriate micromanagement. In February 2020, the board of trustees publicly agreed there was no wrongdoing on the part of Lane and paid him nearly $900,000 in the buyout of his contract. A new president was to be named in 2020. In February 2020, one month prior to the visit of a site visit team representing the university's regional accreditor, the board partially repealed the new bylaws that allowed them to fire any university employee.
Campus
The university has more than 45 buildings on a urban gated campus centrally located in Houston. The campus is two miles southeast of downtown Houston, and five miles east of Uptown Houston. TSU is recognized as a Tree Campus USA school for its commitment to preserving and increasing campus trees.The school's first structure was the Thornton B. Fairchild Building, built 1947–1948 and housing administration and classroom space. Temporary buildings served as faculty housing during that time. The Mack H. Hannah hall, designed by Lamar Q. Cato and opened in 1950, was the second building. In the late 1950s many more buildings opened, including classroom, dormitory, and student union facilities.
Notable buildings
University Museum
Completed in 2000, the exhibition space displays a variety of historical and contemporary art. The museum is the permanent home of the Web of Life, a twenty-six-foot mural by world-renowned artist John T. Biggers, founding chairman of the TSU art department.Mack H. Hannah Hall
Multiple TSU student-created murals are present in Hannah Hall.The building had two 1971 murals by Harvey Johnson, a longtime TSU art instructor, about African influences in U.S. culture and mothers: Mothers of "the Fathers and the Son" and Dere's a "Han Writin on de Wall". He was educated by the founder of the TSU art school, Dr. John T. Biggers. It, as part of the Black Power movement, was Johnson's senior project, as the university at the time allowed its students to create murals on campus property. African American Vernacular English was a feature of the titles.
In 2008 incoming TSU president John Rudley had the murals painted over with white paint, stating that they were not high quality enough. A spokesperson initially said that the painting over was an error but Rudley later stated it was intentional. The director of the university museum, Alvia J. Wardlaw, who teaches art history, expressed disagreement with the decision. The Houston Chronicle criticized the removal in an editorial. Johnson himself expressed disappointment with the removal. Rudley later appropriated funds for possible restoration of memorials due to the negative reception.