A CULTURAL BREAKTHROUGH ON HISTORIC GROUNDS

African American Studies Program Initiative begins push for full degree program at PVAMU

Most who attend or work at Prairie View A&M University are aware that a plantation staffed by slaves once occupied the very land on which the main campus stands.

That’s why the creation of a full African-American studies program on PVAMU’s main campus is a true moment of irony and anticipation. It’s also a moment of intense planning, as Dr. James A. Wilson, Jr., PVAMU associate provost for academic affairs, Dr. James M. Palmer, interim provost of academic affairs, and Dr. Danny R. Kelley, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences collaborate on how to structure the program and begin to prepare a short list of instructors to consider as potential faculty.

What is formally called the African-American Studies Initiative became possible thanks to significant financial gifts and grants. PVAMU received $500,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $250,000 from an anonymous donor and will be able to utilize a $250,000 university match. “The genesis of this is (PVAMU President) Ruth Simmons’ presence,” Dr. Palmer says. “In one of her very first public addresses, she lamented the fact that Prairie View did not have a formalized African American studies program,” notes Palmer. “Dr. Simmons wants a genuine African American studies program to be a part of her legacy as PVAMU president.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Wilson observes that it has almost become the norm for many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) not to have full African-American studies programs within their curriculum.

“We wanted to instill, at the core of this program, that every single student at Prairie View will have an opportunity to take an African-American studies course regardless of their major,” says Wilson. “We looked at the historical aspect, beginning in the 1960s, when Howard University was one of the first to challenge the classic HBCU curriculum.”

Although there has never been a full, degreed African-American studies program that students could select as a major, PVAMU does offer a minor in African-American studies.

Dr. Kelley says the objective of the program will be that every course will have an infusion of African-American culture and history within the course.

“African-American history is not as ingrained in the culture of university life nationwide as much as we think it should be,” Kelley says. “There is a market for people who have done real study in this area to acquire degrees and to teach on the subject.

“The whole concept of having an African-American studies program is not new. We just never moved forward on it,” Kelley observes. “Students and faculty had talked about it, and we had reached certain phases, but for some reason or other, it never came to a state of completion,” he says. “Dr. Simmons gave new teeth to the project.”

Wilson says the most likely goal of future students who may choose to major in the African American studies program would be to pursue graduate work in order to teach African-American history, political science or various other disciplines where the role of African-Americans has been significant.

“The idea is that every single graduate of PVAMU will have the opportunity to say they had professors who introduced them to the idea of pursuing a degree in African American history or African American literature because African Americans are actually underrepresented as instructors in those fields,” Wilson adds.

“I tell the students to notice the trees because if the trees could talk, they’d tell you a lot about what happened on the very landscape that this campus is situated on.”

–Dr. Wilson

Several PVAMU scholars who teach history, political science, music and other disciplines drafted an outline of the studies program during the summer of 2018. “We wanted to make sure that everyone had a clear idea of the value this would have for all of our students,” adds Wilson. “We looked at thematics across the whole African-American diasporic experience, from the African slave trade all the way up to post-Obama.”

Wilson says the launch of the program could have a profound impact all over the PVAMU campus. “We hope this will inspire students to read and study more broadly and to have an appreciation for studies dealing with race, politics and culture,” says Wilson. “It’s an opportunity to get the intellectual climate on this campus buzzing around the culture of African-American studies.”

The faculty selection process got underway in fall 2018, with a goal to employ 20 instructors, says Palmer. By summer 2019, syllabi for courses are scheduled to be ready. “As early as March 2019, we’ll have all the courses identified, so students will know this is a specifically targeted African-American content course.” Additionally, a series of lectures, art exhibits, symposiums and films are being planned to coincide with the start of the program, says Wilson. The first symposium took place in October 2018 and featured Nell Irvin Painter, an eminent African-American historian of Southern U.S. history, who discussed how the curriculum of an African-American program should look.

Wilson says the team is working to bring other historians like Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West to speak at PVAMU. Both Gates and West are friends of Dr. Simmons.

“It is significant that the Alta Vista slave plantation once occupied land now held by PVAMU,” says Wilson. “I tell the students to notice the trees because if the trees could talk, they’d tell you a lot about what happened on the very landscape that this campus is situated on.”

Palmer says a key by-product of the grant will be additional research possibilities and notes that the team wants to establish a direct link between the program and the Texas Institute for the Preservation of African American History. o