On June 23, 1972, nearly thirty-five years prior to the passage of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or educational program that receives federal funding, there was the Scottish Brigade Drill Team. Beatrice Lytle, the group’s sponsor, organized the Scottish Brigade Drill Team in September of 1937 in conjunction with the newly […]
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The Mouse that Roared: Eleanor Tinsley
In the late 1960s Mrs. James Tinsley set a shining example of domesticity in the local press as the “clever hostess,” behind the University of Houston history department’s annual dessert and coffee party. The genteel mother of three rounded out this image teaching Sunday school and offering piano lessons to elementary-aged children at her home […]
Building on Intellectual Foundations: Creating the African American Library at the Gregory School
On September 2, 2002 a group of city officials and Houston’s then-mayor, Lee P. Brown, solidified the fate of an abandoned brick building at 1300 Victor Street in Freedmen’s Town Historic District. Through a significant restoration effort, Fourth Ward’s late-1920s-era African-American elementary school, vacant since 1984, was to become a dual-purpose cultural center and research […]
Progressive Programming at KUHT
By Emily Vinson The KUHT television program People are Taught to be Different had the noble aim of improving intercultural understanding, and showing viewers that people are, at their core, much the same. Against a simple stage setting, elegant dancers interpreted moments of joy and sorrow, anger, and love across cultures, as the narrator provided […]
The Turkey Day Classic: Houston’s Biggest Football Rivalry
It has been over 50 years since the last Turkey Day Classic was played, yet still to this day the game is the conversation among Jack Yates and Phyllis Wheatley Alumni alike. The classic initially began as a rotation of holiday games between Yates, Washington, and Wheatley High Schools in 1927. By 1946, the overwhelming […]
KUHT-TV: UH’s Second Great Vision
Houston Independent School District Superintendent Dr. E. E. Oberholtzer’s concept for Houston Junior College was arguably the University of Houston’s first great visionary aspiration. In 1951, UH President Dr. Walter Kemmerer brought another visionary concept to the university, a proposal for an educational television station.
SPARK PARKS Spark the Imagination
Although Houston may be known for its many cultural and art museums, the handiwork of local artists can also be found in a not-so-usual location – school and neighborhood SPARK Parks, which grew from one woman’s inspiration.
The Chicano Movement in Houston and Texas: A Personal Memory
The Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s was essentially a grassroots community insurrection and rebellion against a stifling racism and oppression that strangled the Latino and Black communities of Houston and Texas in that time, and a determination to fight and defeat it. We sought to bring the Mexican American out of second-class citizenship […]
The Fight for Bilingual Education in Houston: An Insider’s Perspective
During the 1990s, conservative forces in the country initiated a campaign to eliminate or replace state and local bilingual education policies with English only ones. Proponents of bilingual education challenged these efforts in policy-making arenas, in the courts, and in the streets.
William Holland: A Mighty Lion at Yates
In 1958, Jack Yates High School moved from its original location at 2610 Elgin Street in the Third Ward to its current location at 3703 Sampson, just a short distance away. It should have been an improvement—modern building, larger facility—but instead it marked a reversal from the school’s position as a central, guiding force for […]