Click the image below to begin a presentation about the principals and presidents.

L. W. Minor, Principal, 1878

Prairie View’s Chief Administrative Officer was first called the “principal.” It was not until 1948 that the position was afforded the title “president”. E.B. Evans has the distinction of being the only CAO to hold both titles.

As described in former PVAMU history professor George Ruble Woolfolks’ 1962 masterwork, “Prairie View: A Study in Public Conscience, 1878–1946 (1962)”:

“The control by the A. & M. College Board of the fortunes of the Negro A. & M. was established by statute. The Commissioners originated, by leaving supervision of the property in the hands of Edwin Waller, the policy of having a supervisor over the executive head of the school. The Board itself designated the President of the A. & M. College at College Station the “President” of the Negro school. The on-the-spot Negro head of the school was called the ‘Principal.'”

ERA OF PRINCIPALS AS CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
1878-1948

These men led the College during those difficult decades as Federal Reconstruction ended and the doctrine of “separate but equal” emerged with the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896. The eight principals and their tenures were:

  • L.W. Minor, 1878
  • E.H. Anderson, 1879-1884
  • Laurine C. Anderson, 1884-1894
  • Edward L. Blackshear, 1895¬1915
  • Isaiah M. Terrell, 1915-1918
  • J.G. Osborne, 1918-1925
  • Paul (Uncle Paul) Bledsoe (Interim Principal), 1925-1962
  • Willette Rutherford Banks, 1926-1947
  • Edward B. Evans, 1947-1948

ERA OF PRESIDENTS AS CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS

1948-Present

In 1948, the Board of Directors changed the title of the Chief Administrative Officer of the College from Principal to President on December 3, 1948. The Presidents and their tenures are:

  • Edward B. Evans 1948-1966
  • Jesse M. Drew, 1966
  • Alvin I. Thomas, 1966-1982
  • Ivory Nelson (Interim President), June 1982-January 1983
  • Percy A. Pierre, 1983-1989
  • Milton R. Bryant (Interim President), June 1989-December 1989
  • Julius W. Becton, Jr., 1989-1994
  • Harold S. Bonner (Interim President), August 1994-October 1994
  • Charles A. Hines, 1994-2002
  • Willie A. Tempton, Sr. (Interim President), 2002-2003
  • George C. Wright, 2003-2017
  • Ruth J. Simmons, 2017-present