How tarleton, A&M Began Accepting African-American students

Racial integration on American college campuses was a divisive, hotbutton issue during the 1960s. African-American students, long restricted to colleges in certain areas of the nation or to historically black institutions, attempted to broaden their reach throughout the South.

Including Texas.

How Tarleton, A&M Began

Accepting African-American Students

While Texas A&M admitted its first African-American students in 1963, Tarleton quietly, and through a small act of subterfuge by several faculty members, admitted its first in 1965.

Shirley Ann Durham of Stephenville wanted to attend college, possibly as a result of an interaction with Lewis Woodward, a voice teacher at Tarleton, according to historian Christopher E. Guthrie in John Tarleton and His Legacy: The History of Tarleton State University, 1899-1999.

The two apparently met in a Stephenville drug store, where Durham and a friend were staging a sit-in. Woodward, in support of their cause, sat in their booth. They discussed the civil rights movement and later he invited them to bring their families to Tarleton’s musical productions.

“We really needed to see Negroes in the audience,” Woodward said, “so that people would see that it was OK and they were part of the community.”

Several high-profile faculty members, notably Dick Smith, O.A. Grant, Hilmar Wagner and John Pratt learned of Durham’s goal to attend college and reportedly broached the subject to President E.J. Howell, who rejected the idea.

Nonetheless, the professors pooled money to pay Durham’s tuition and fees, then helped her register for spring semester. By the time Howell found out, she was enrolled, leading to a terse “Tarleton is integrated this semester,” statement from Howell accompanying enrollment reports.

Integration in the A&M System actually occurred almost two years earlier when three African-American men enrolled in summer classes at College Station.

Already facing public scrutiny for new policies admitting women, A&M President Earl Rudder’s administration carefully planned its integration in 1963 to avoid the media exposure affecting many southern state universities fighting integration.

George D. Sutton and Vernell Jackson, high school science teachers, were signed up to attend an institute at A&M funded by the National Science Foundation. Leroy Sterling, a junior at Texas Southern University, a predominantly black college in Houston, wanted to enroll in summer classes closer to home so he could finish his degree the next academic year.

He had been denied admittance to A&M in the spring with the written response: “We are not admitting Negroes at this time.” Returning home for the summer, Sterling was surprised to receive a telegram reversing the initial decision.

Sterling reported to the registrar’s office where he met Jackson, his high school science teacher, and Sutton, according to Thomas M. Hatfield’s book, Rudder: From Leader to Legend. The three were enrolled and, by the time their presence on campus was noted, the story barely made the newspapers.

In 1999, Shirley Ann (Durham) Thompson received the Trailblazer Award from Tarleton’s Office of Multicultural Services for breaking the university’s color barrier.

Sterling became an educator, eventually an Assistant Professor, Director of Honors and director of a national writing project at Alabama A&M University.

Today, minority students make up more than 27 percent of Tarleton’s student body. That number has been growing each semester. This past fall, the number of minority students, including African-American and Hispanic, totaled more than 3,500.

System-wide, minorities in 2016 make up more than one-third of total student enrollment.