Establishment of HBCUs in Texas

Throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries, educational opportunities for African Americans were sporadic and unreliable, especially in Texas and other Southern states. At the Civil War’s end, most Black Texans faced a lack of social, political, and economic equality, despite the abolition of slavery. This disparity became clearer during the era of Reconstruction, when most white Texans explicitly denied opportunities to African Americans, relegating them to segregated, second-class citizen status. When the American Missionary Association (AMA) and the Baptist Home Mission Society first inhabited the South in the late 1860s, “they had a common goal – to establish colleges and universities for the freedmen… to uplift the ex-slaves by training ministers and teachers who would then go out and spread the benefits of Christianity and education to their race.” 

Read More