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R.J.S. Center for Race and Justice

PVAMU Professors, Students Dominate Media During 2024 Election Coverage

The 2024 election season was marked by intense and dynamic events, and Prairie View A&M University stood out as a major source of expertise and timely commentary. Our faculty and students were at the forefront, providing insightful analysis from the perspective of one of the state’s leading Historically Black Colleges and Universities.Ā  Dr. William [...]

Dr. Ruth J. Simmons awarded National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden

Ruth J. Simmons, Prairie View A&M University's eighth president and the first woman in the University’s history to hold the prestigious role, was presented the National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden during a ceremony at the White House on October 21, 2024. This prestigious honor, which acknowledges those who have significantly enhanced our understanding [...]

Bestselling author, novelist Tayari Jones named PVAMU’s 2024-2025 Writer-in-Residence

ā€œIt’s among Tayari’s many gifts that she can touch us soul to soul with her words.ā€ – Oprah Winfrey Photo by Tyson Alan Horne PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (Sept. 12, 2024) - Prairie View A&M University proudly announces that New York Times bestselling author Tayari Jones will serve as the 2024-2025 Toni Morrison Writer-in-Residence. [...]

Opinion| Freedom to Be: Prairie View’s First Generation of Graduates and the Promotion of Juneteenth

Figure 1: Picture of Charles Joel Robinson, courtesy of the Williams Family General Gordon Granger formally decreeing slavery’s end in Galveston on June 19, 1865, was an epoch event that demolished the existing social, economic and political foundations of society in Texas. Moreover, the end of slavery in the Lone Star State ushered [...]

PVAMU receives new grant to help train students in computing to address social issues affecting rural communities

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (April 11, 2024) - Prairie View A&M University has received a Responsible Computing Challenge award from the Mozilla Foundation, aimed at developing ā€œcurricula that empowers students to think about the social and political context of computing.ā€ Mozilla, most widely known for developing the Firefox browser, has made making the internet a force [...]

PVAMU, NHC Summer Institute on teaching African American Studies focuses on the perspectives of women

How does our understanding of American history and culture change when viewed through the eyes of Black women? How should we incorporate Black women’s voices in curriculums to ensure students can benefit from those perspectives? These and related questions will be the focus of (re)Centering the Narrative: Black Women’s Voices of the 19th and 20th [...]

Opinion| Locating Lucinda: Exploring the experiences of Enslaved People held at Alta Vista Plantation

My first encounter with Lucinda, an enslaved woman held atĀ Alta Vista PlantationĀ owned byĀ Jared Kirby, came by way of reading her details on Rice University’s SlaveVoyages website. Kirby carried fifteen-year-oldĀ LucindaĀ on Tuesday, May 25, 1858, from New Orleans, Louisiana, on board the steamshipĀ GalvestonĀ to Galveston, Texas, with the help of a shipping company, Fellows & Co. The fine [...]

Substantial NEH grant helping to eliminate silences, erasures surrounding history of PVAMU

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (April 4, 2023) – The Special Collections & Archives Department at Prairie View A&M University has received a $450,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The funds helped establish the Digital PV Panther Project, which aims to eliminate the silences and erasures surrounding the history of PVAMU. The project is [...]

A Look at PVAMU’s Top 15 Moments of 2022

PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas - Two-thousand and twenty-two – what a year for Prairie View A&M University! As 2023 begins, let’s look at the most notable items accomplished on ā€œThe Hillā€ over the last 365 days. 1. PVAMU achieved the prestigious Carnegie R2 Classification. PVAMU kicked off 2022 with a bang. The University attained [...]

Ash-Lee Henderson named PVAMU’s new Activist-in-Residence

Photo Credit: Labor Community Strategy Center PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas - Prairie View A&M University welcomes Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson as its 2022-2023 Activist-in-Residence. Henderson, a long-time community organizer and the first Black woman to serve as co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education CenterĀ (a social justice leadership training school and cultural center in [...]