Houston Colored Junior College: The Early Years (1927-1934)
In 1927, the Houston Public School Board allocated funding for the establishment of two junior colleges: one for whites and one for African-Americans. With a $2,800 loan, the Colored Junior College was founded under the supervision of the Houston School District. To operate, the college required instructional costs to be covered by tuition fees paid by enrolled students.
The inaugural summer session welcomed 300 students, though enrollment dropped to 88 students in the fall as many summer attendees were teachers returning to their jobs. The Colored Junior College was created to provide higher education opportunities for African-Americans and advanced rapidly, achieving membership in the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and gaining approval from the Southern Association of Colleges by 1931.
Houston College for Negroes (1934-1947)
In the summer of 1934, the Houston School Board changed the junior college to a four-year college and the name to Houston College for Negroes. In 1936, sixty-three individuals became members of the first graduating class. The college operated this way until the summer of 1943, when it formally added a graduate program. In the spring of 1945, the Houston Independent School District severed its relationship with Houston College for Negroes, and thereafter all management of the college was vested in a Separate Board of Regents.
The College continued to operate in Yates High School, but by 1946 it had grown to an enrollment of approximately 1,400 students and needed room to grow. A few years earlier, with the help of Hugh Roy Cullen, a local philanthropist, the college obtained a 53-acre piece of property in the Third Ward area of Houston. With support from two large donors, Mrs. T.M. Fairchild, in memory of her late husband, Mr. and Mrs. C.A. Dupree, and the African American community, the college raised enough money to construct its first building on the new campus. And so, in the fall of 1946, the college moved from Jack Yates High School to its first building, the new T.M. Fairchild Building, which still operates as an active building in the university's facilities inventory.
Texas State University for Negroes (1947-1951)
In February of 1946, Heman Marion Sweatt, an African American Houston mail carrier, applied to enroll in the law school at the University of Texas. Because Texas was one of the segregated states, Sweatt was denied admission and later filed a suit against the University of Texas and the State of Texas with the support of the NAACP. In response, believing the separate but equal doctrine would carry the day, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 140 on March 3, 1947, providing for the establishment of a Negro law school in Houston and the creation of a university to surround it. This bill was complemented by House Bill 788, which approved $2,000,000 to purchase a site near Houston to house this new college and support its operation. Texas law makers initially considered Prairie View A&M College as the location of this new Law School. However, on June 14, 1947, the decision was made to use the site of Houston College for Negroes, with its new campus at the center of a large and fast growing black population. Thus, a new law school for Negroes of Texas and Texas State University for Negroes was born.
Under the separate but equal concept, the intention of Senate Bill 140 and House Bill 788 was to create a new university for Negroes in Houston that would become the equivalent of the University of Texas in Austin.
Texas Southern University (1951-Present)
On June 1, 1951, the name of this new university for Negroes was changed from Texas State University for Negroes to Texas Southern University after students petitioned the state legislature to remove the phrase "for Negroes."
When the university opened its doors in September 1947, it had 2,300 students, two schools, one division and one college - the Law School, the Pharmacy School, the Vocational Division, and the College of Arts and Sciences. Responding to the changing times, in 1973, the 63rd Legislature designated Texas Southern University as a "special purpose" institution for urban programming. As a result, four more academic units were added - the College of Education, the School of Public Affairs, the School of Communications and the Weekend College. This designation described what Texas Southern University was doing from its inception - embracing diversity.
Today, Texas Southern University offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs in the following academic colleges and schools: the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences; the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences; the College of Science and Technology; the College of Education; the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs; the School of Communication; the Thurgood Marshall School of Law; the Jesse H. Jones School of Business; the Thomas Freeman Honors College; the College of Transdisciplinary Studies and the Graduate School. Other programmatic emphases are found in the Center for Excellence in Urban Education, the Center for Transportation Training and Research, the Center on the Family and a variety of special programs and projects.
Currently, Texas Southern University is staffed by approximately 1,000 faculty members and support personnel. More than 8,700 students, representing ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, are currently enrolled at the university.