About Us

The mission of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice is to understand persistent inequities, particularly those faced by rural residents, through robust and evidence-based research. The Center will host scholarly symposia, house research fellows, and foster outreach programs. The Center will also produce original research that is impactful and innovative. It will serve as a convener and facilitator of research-based conversations that help frame national discussions on how we can encourage full participation and citizen engagement.

The Center’s work is to engage in groundbreaking research and implement programming that highlights ongoing challenges to full democratic participation by all citizens and facilitates conversations between stakeholders and researchers. We will engage in transformational and interdisciplinary public history projects that help increase overall knowledge of PVAMU and Texas history as well as train student researchers in archival methods, community-engaged scholarship, and professional presentations.