PVAMU Ranked 2nd on Social Mobility Index from CollegeNet

PV-grad2CollegeNet ranked more than 900 colleges and universities based on how well those institutions improved economic mobility and provided affordable education to disadvantaged families. Virtually none of the top 50 in this “social mobility index” are Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, Virginia, Notre Dame or Stanford. Instead, there are names such as City University of New York, Prairie View A&M University, Winston-Salem State and Montana Tech.

Many of the top entrants in the social-mobility index are regional public schools. Average tuition for the top 50 is $9,833, compared with $31,231 at a private university. The typical student earns about $49,000 within a few years of graduating, which is close to the median income for all families.

The CollegeNet rankings highlight schools with modest tuition that attract students from families with relatively low incomes. Other factors are the school’s graduation rate, the starting pay of grads, and the size of the school’s endowment.

Read the Yahoo Finance story here.

42nd Bayou Classic: New time, new channel, same place

PV-grad2CollegeNet ranked more than 900 colleges and universities based on how well those institutions improved economic mobility and provided affordable education to disadvantaged families. Virtually none of the top 50 in this “social mobility index” are Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale, Virginia, Notre Dame or Stanford. Instead, there are names such as City University of New York, Prairie View A&M University, Winston-Salem State and Montana Tech.

Many of the top entrants in the social-mobility index are regional public schools. Average tuition for the top 50 is $9,833, compared with $31,231 at a private university. The typical student earns about $49,000 within a few years of graduating, which is close to the median income for all families.

The CollegeNet rankings highlight schools with modest tuition that attract students from families with relatively low incomes. Other factors are the school’s graduation rate, the starting pay of grads, and the size of the school’s endowment.

Read the Yahoo Finance story here.

New App will allow users to preserve African American history in World War I

african_american_world_war_ii_soldiersIn an ongoing effort to uncover the hidden stories of African American veterans, the West Virginia University Reed College of Media is partnering with Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust to develop an app that would allow users to travel back in history.

The app, BlackTimeMap, will combine virtual and augmented reality technology with community participation to create an immersive, interactive and educational experience that preserves African American history in WWI.

“The time is now to develop a digital record for the upcoming WWI National Commemoration in 2017. We will not be satisfied with merely remaining a footnote in the annals of WWI history,” said Ron E. Armstead, Executive Director Congressional Black Caucus Veterans Braintrust.

The app will allow smartphone, tablet and Google cardboard users to visit African American war memorial sites in 360° from anywhere in the world and travel back in time with augmented reality content. Audiences will be able to access historical photos, film and audio as well as pin their own images, stories and documents to a virtual “wall” at the memorial sites.

Related: Houston’s Memorial Park — Camp Logan, Houston Riots

International African American Museum funding at halfway point

museum-rendering1With the announcement of a $500,000 gift by Boeing to the International African American Museum project, Charleston, S.C. Mayor Joe Riley said recently that the funding effort was at the halfway point. Riley said he hoped to have the $75 million museum built by the end of 2018. Boeing’s contribution to the project is now at $750,000. The company raised $250,000 in 2011. Company officials say the money raised will be used to create the Family Heritage Center. The International African American Museum aims to re-center South Carolina’s place in global history, illuminating its role in the international slave trade and the Civil War. The museum will connect visitors to their ancestors, demonstrating how enslaved Africans and free blacks shaped economic, political, and cultural development in the nation and beyond.

TBHPP Bookshelf

yates-wheatley gamePublished scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we’d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page — including a featured selectionrequiem_jacketcover — and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, for Veteran’s Day, we offer “Requiem for a Classic, Thanksgiving Turkey Day Classic,” by Thurman Robins, Ed.D. In the era when segregation and Jim Crow laws ruled the land, “The Turkey Day Classic” football game was created in Houston. The event prospered from 1927 thru 1966. Newspaper accounts describe the Thanksgiving Day football game between Jack Yates and Phillis Wheatley High Schools as annually the largest attended schoolboy game in America.

This Week In Texas Black History, Nov. 22-28

Calendar courtesy Texas Black History Preservation Project

westbrook

John Westbrook

23 — On this day in 1963, Baylor University’s athletic council announced it would integrate all of the school’s athletic teams, effective with the opening of the spring semester, Jan. 30, 1964. At the time, the school had no black students, but had announced its intention to open enrollment. John Bridgers, head football coach and athletic director said, “We don’t know of any Negro athletes right now that we’re interested in, but there may be some we will want to look at and investigate…there are some tremendous Negro athletes all over the country.” Bridgers said he personally agrees with the action of the trustees and the athletic council. “I feel it’s something that should be, from a standpoint of being right.” Ironically, Baylor was the first program in the Southwest Conference to have a black player take the field when running back John Westbrook (pictured), a walk-on, carried the ball twice in the Bears victory over Syracuse University on Sept. 10, 1966. A week later, Southern Methodist University‘s Jerry Levias became the SWC’s first black scholarship player.

24 — Called the “King of Ragtime,” Scott Joplin was born this day in 1868 near Linden, Texas. (Some documents, however, refer to his birth as between June 1867 and mid-January 1868.) Joplin grew up in Texarkana, Texas and taught himself to play piano in the home where his mother worked as a domestic. Sheet music for his best-known piece, “Maple Leaf Rag,” sold over a million copies and his works also include a ballet and two operas. Joplin’s music was featured in the 1973 motion picture, “The Sting,” which won an Academy Award for its film score. In 1976, Joplin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize for “Treemonisha,” the first grand opera by an African American.

24 – Jazz pianist Teddy Wilson was born this day in Austin in 1912. Known as “the definitive swing pianist,” Wilson began his career in the late 1920s in various Midwest bands, and from 1935 to 1939, played on sessions that resulted in legendary vocalist Billie Holiday’s greatest work. He joined Benny Goodman in 1936, breaking the color barrier by performing on an equal footing with Goodman in trios, quartets and sextets.

24 — Attorney, businessman and civil rights activist Percy Sutton was born on this date in 1920 in San Antonio. The son of a former slave, Sutton served in World War II with the Tuskegee Airmen, then settled in New York. In 1971, he co-founded the Inner City Broadcasting Corporation, which purchased WLIB-AM, making it the first black-owned station in New York City. He earned a law degree in 1950 and served in the New York State Assembly before taking over as Manhattan borough president in 1966, becoming the state’s highest-ranking black elected official. Sutton also headed a group that owned the Amsterdam News, the second-largest
black weekly newspaper in the country.

27 — On this day in 1944, U.S. Congressman Mickey Leland was born in Lubbock. He graduated from Houston’s Phillis Wheatley High School in 1964 and earned a pharmacy degree from Texas Southern University in 1970. Leland served six terms in Congress (18th District) and five years as a Texas state legislator (88th District). He was a civil rights activist and a staunch advocate in the fight against hunger. He was the lead supporter for passage of the Africa Famine Relief and Recovery Act of 1985, legislation that provided $800 million in food and humanitarian relief supplies.

28 — The Jack Yates-Phillis Wheatley high school football rivalry in Houston started in 1927, but the game officially became the “Turkey Day Classic” on this day in 1946. Played at Jeppesen Stadium — then a venue for public school sports events, the Thanksgiving Day game would be played until 1966 and drew standing room only crowds of 30,000-plus fans making it, for many years, the largest event in the nation for high school football.

28 — Claude William Black, Jr., minister and political figure, was born on this day in 1916 in San Antonio. Rev. Black was pastor of Mt. Zion First Baptist Church in San Antonio for almost 50 years, but was also a noted Civil Rights leader who became a four-term city councilman (1973-1978) and the city’s first black Mayor Pro Tem. He was an associate of Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Phillip Randolph, and Thurgood Marshall. During President Lyndon Johnson ‘ s administration, Black was a delegate to the White House Conference on Civil Rights.

Blog: Ron Goodwin, author, PVAMU history professor

Ron Goodgoodwinwin’s bi-weekly blog appears exclusively for TIPHC/TBHPP. Goodwin is a San Antonio native and Air Force veteran. Generally, his column will address contemporary issues in the black community and how they relate to black history. He and the TIPHC/TBHPP staff welcome your comments. In his latest blog, “Art imitating life(?),” Goodwin draws parallels between the movie “The Hunger Games” and real life scenarios where the poor serve as entertainment for the wealthy as a way of escaping sometimes dire consequences, especially in the black community. Read it

Submissions wanted

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your…writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC/TBHPP editors before beginning your research/writing. We welcome your questions or comments via email or telephone – mdhurd@pvamu.edu, 936-261-9836.