Center for race and justice launches at Prairie View A&M University

Prairie View A&M University launched its Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice virtually . The creation of the center has been a long time coming and is a continuation of the historically black college’s efforts to create a more equitable society, said both the center’s director and the university president. “We know that when the Texas legislature created Prairie View A&M in 1876 on the old Alta Vista Plantation, we began a new race and justice project that very day,” said Melanye Price, director of the center and an endowed political science professor at Prairie View. “When the first students arrived in 1878, those young men who had themselves been enslaved, they came with a desire to create a new future for themselves and their community. This became a call for justice that was built into the soil, into the trees, into the buildings that we have come to know as Prairie View A&M.” The center, located in the Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences building, is named for current university President Ruth Simmons,. “Recent and continuing events in the country remind us that we have not done nearly enough to educate the country on the legacy and current reality of racial bias,” Simmons said. “We have not done nearly enough to deepen our own understanding of the continuing effects of racism in the country, but there is time for us to get it right.” The death of George Floyd, a man with Houston roots who died in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020, “aroused in many the recognition of how little progress African Americans have made toward equal treatment under the law,” Simmons said. Floyd’s death inspired her to write a letter calling for a response across the country to rebuild race relations and to create the center. Simmons’ letter drew praise from people around the country, including H-E-B Chairman Charles Butt, who donated $1 million for the center’s development. Simmons said she believes the world can achieve this through “truth telling” and each person challenging themselves to be anti-racist, fighting for the equality and fair treatment of all groups, and “inviting the widest swath of citizens to engage in … justice work.” The center is one step toward that work and launches with three priorities. The Committee on the Legacy of Slavery and the Impact of Segregation will explore the experience and histories of those who were enslaved on the former plantation grounds where the university is located. The committee’s work will include studying the impact of segregation on the institution and the local Black community, Price said. Aided by student researchers and community partners, the committee will also do archival searches and collect oral histories of Prairie View residents and present a report in anticipation of the college’s 150th anniversary in 2026. The Implicit Bias Training and Equity Project, another of the center’s priorities, will collaborate with nonprofit My Brother’s Keeper Outreach Center and Morehouse College’s National Training Institute on Race and Equity, Price said. Sponsored by J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, the project will kick-start a city-wide effort to decrease bias within organizations and institutions and invite community members to participate in workshops and training. During the first training session three weeks ago, more than 80 people from the Prairie View A&M community attended. The third rung of the center’s initial priorities is voting rights. Prairie View A&M students have long been at the forefront of voting advocacy efforts in Waller County. The center’s PVAMU HBCU Voting Rights Lab will offer a space where the political work of students and activists will be displayed in a digital exhibition. On HoustonChronicle.com: Prairie View A&M students win fight for early voting polling place Price said the lab will compile and feature the stories and experiences of Prairie View students in a modern-day battle of voter suppression of African Americans and college students. And other historically black colleges and universities will be able to curate their own histories. The hope, she said, is to “conceive a national response to the problem of voter suppression at HBCUs.” On HoustonChronicle.com: Prairie View A&M produces young politicians Other initiatives of the center include an undergraduate scholars program and an activist-in-residence. The intent, Price said, is to expose students to people who have committed their lives to community service. To view the full program of the center’s virtual launch which included several speakers, go to youtube.com/pvamu. For more information about the center, go to pvamu.edu/simmonscenter. brittany.britto@chron.com

Center for race and justice launches at Prairie View A&M University

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