SWATH 2014!

 

SWATH stands for "Summer Workshop on African American Texas History."  This exciting workshop grew out a course syllabus that was itself inspired by a special moment in the history of the Department of History & Geography at Texas Southern University.

 

In 2013, TSU faculty members and alums published five manuscripts treating various aspects of African American Texas History, including the following:

 

• Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, Recovering Five Generations Hence:  The Life and Writing of Lillian Jones Horace (Texas A & M University Press, 2013);

• Merline Pitre, Black Southern Women in the Civil Rights Movement (Texas A & M University Press, 2013);

• Bernadette Pruitt, The Other Migration:  The Migration of Rural Blacks to Houston, 1900-1941 (Texas A & M University Press, 2013);

• Isaac Hamilton, The Black Office Corps:  A History of Black Military Advancement from Integration through Vietnam (Routledge, 2013). 

• Maco Faniel, Hip Hop in Houston (The History Press, 2013).

 

While each work  enriches our knowledge of African American Texas History, two have won prestigious awards.  Dr. Merline Pitre's Southern Black Women in the Civil Rights Movement won the Liz Carpenter Award sponsored by the Texas State Historical Association for the best book on women's history, and Bernadette Pruitt's book The Other Migration:  The Migration of Rural Blacks to Houston won the Ottis Lock Award, sponsored by the East Texas Historical Association, for the best book on East Texas History.

 

Given the thousands of hours of research and writing represented in the aforementioned manuscripts, and our collective commitment to the study of African American history, I thought it important to create a vibrant space for TSU scholars and others from throughout the academic community to share their cutting-edge research on African American Texas History with K-16 teachers in the Houston area and beyond.
 

SWATH 2014 would not have been realized without its sponsors: the Summerlee Foundation, Texas Southern University, Houston Public Library, African American Library at the Old Gregory School, Latter Day Deliverance Revival Church, and ALT Home Health Care, Inc.  Thanks to their generous contributions, SWATH can live true to its motto "Each one teach one."