PCL and Alumni Center

The Perry-Casteñeda library honors Ervin S. Perry and Carlos E. Castañeda, two of UT’s pioneering faculty members of color. The naming of the library in 1975 highlights this segment’s focus on the slow integration of the campus, including its buildings and symbols. This stop also covers some of UT’s black “firsts” by pointing out the ongoing process of integration needed to bring the University’s historically underrepresented students, staff, and faculty into collective memory and institutional history.

George I. Sánchez, undated, Prints and Photographs Collection, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History

George Sánchez (1906–1972) was a noted activist scholar and UT Professor and the namesake of the Sánchez Building, the home of the College of Education. Born and raised in New Mexico, Sánchez first came to the University of Texas at Austin for a master’s degree in educational psychology and Spanish, which he earned in 1931. Following the completion of his PhD and teaching at the University of New Mexico, among other pursuits, he returned to UT in 1940 as the first Professor of Latin American Studies. He later served as chair of the Department of History and Philosophy (1951–59) and as the director of the Center for International Affairs.[1]

Sánchez’s research and writing reflected his political orientation and dedication to the education of Mexican American and Latinx children. His work focused on equalizing educational opportunities, including examining the issues around bilingual learners and standardized testing, educational segregation and discrimination. His scholarship and advocacy led him to become the president of the League of Latin American Citizens, (LULAC) and the executive director for the American Council of Spanish Speaking People—both civil rights organizations in the US. A prolific scholar and writer, Sánchez also held many affiliations with organizations at UT, across the country, and internationally in service of his areas of expertise and social activism on behalf of Latinx issues and people. The George I. Sánchez Centennial Professorship in Liberal Arts at UT was the first endowed professorship given to a “Mexican-American professor in the United States.”[2] In 1995, the Education Building at UT was rededicated as the George I. Sánchez Building.

Another major Latinx figure at UT, Américo Paredes (1915–1999), was a folklorist, founding force in Chicano studies, and professor at UT. He received his BA (1951), MA (1953), and PhD (1956) from UT and was the first Mexican American to receive a doctorate in English from the institution.[3] Like Sánchez, his social and political commitments inspired his scholarship and activism at the University. He published extensively on Texas and borderland folklore, grandfathering what is now considered Borderland Studies. He helped found the Center for Intercultural Folklore and Ethnomusicology Studies at UT in 1967, and along with Sánchez and other faculty and student activism, founded the Center for Mexican American Studies in 1970.[4] Concomitant with his scholarship, Paredes was active in the Chicano movement, fighting discrimination both on and off campus, and using his professorial status and academic prestige as a leverage point for institutional change at UT.

Paredes and Sánchez joined other Latinx scholars nationally in researching Latinx and Mexican American life as well as institutionalizing the study of it in university academic centers. Such scholars include Julian Samora (University of Notre Dame), Arthur León Campa (University of Denver), and fellow UT Professor Carlos Casteñeda.[5] Paredes also edited a collection of essays on George Sánchez entitled Humanidad: Essays in Honor of George I. Sánchez (1977).

The work of these early advocates and scholars paved the way for the inclusion of Latinx studies and students alike at UT. There were also those who came before. By contrast to black students who were denied admission until 1956, Latinx students entered the University as early as 1894. The presence of these students by no means suggests a hospitable climate or a lack of discrimination. The work of Sánchez and Paredes clearly documents the negative racialization of Mexican and Mexican Americans and anti-Latinx sentiments within institutions including UT. These scholar activists’ presence and work contributed to some institutional changes. For example, the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies recently opened and welcomed its first cohort of PhD students in Fall 2018.

Much work remains to excavate, gather, and recount the history of UT’s non-white populations and the contributions they have made. The same needs to be said about LGBTQ, women, and other people less visibly represented in traditional and dominant narratives of University history and life. The Office of the Registrar’s records, the Briscoe Center, oral histories, the Austin History Center, among others are the disparate sources for data that can generate more inclusive narratives and images of UT and the ongoing work of improving this public institution. This tour represents but one effort to be a part of this transformation and in its incompleteness, encourages others to collaborate.

Below is a growing list of “firsts” acknowledging the past footsteps of Latinx students and professors at UT compiled from the Registrar’s Records.

First Latino Student to attend:

1888-89 Garcia, Manuel Marius, Freshman, Rio Grande City, TX

First Latino to receive an undergraduate degree:

1894 Garcia, Manuel Marius, B.A., San Antonio, TX[6]

First Latino to receive a Graduate Degree:

1898 Garcia, Manuel Marius, M.A.

First Latino to graduate from Department of Law:

1917 Cardenas, Miguel R., B.A. Bachelor of Laws, Saltillo, Mexico[7]

First Latino Tenure track faculty member:

1926–27 Arturo Torres-Rioseco, Associate Professor of Spanish-American Literature[8]

First Latina tenure track faculty member:

1935–36 Connie Garza Brockette, Assistant Professor

For more on Sánchez:

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsa20

For Sánchez’s archive:

https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utlac/00069/lac-00069.html

For more on Paredes:

https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utlac/00035/lac-00035p1.html

https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/benson/paredes/index.html

For Paredes’s archive:

https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utlac/00035/lac-00035p1.html

[1] Martha Tevis, “George Isadore Sanchez,” Texas State Historical Association, accessed April 9, 2019, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsa20

[2] Tevis, “George Isadore Sanchez.”

[3] Hinojosa, Clarissa E. and Juan Carlos Rodríguez, “Americo Paredes,” Texas State Historical Association, accessed April 9, 2019, https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpa94

[4] Hinojosa and Rodríguez, “Americo Paredes.”

[5] Matt Meier, “Américo Paredes,” Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, accessed April 9, 2019. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/benson/paredes/biography.html

[6] “Manuel Marius Garcia, First Mexican American to Graduate from the University of Texas – Austin,” American Latino History, accessed April 9, https://americanlatinohistory.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/manuel-marius-garcia-first-mexican-american-to-graduate-from-the-university-of-texas-austin/

[7] “Distinguished Teaching Award,” Texas Exes, accessed April 9, 2019, https://www.texasexes.org/about-us/awards/distinguished-alumnus-award

[8] Alfredo Roggiano, “Arturo Torres Rioseco,” University of Pittsburgh, accessed April 9, 2019, https://www.hispanic.pitt.edu/iili/rioseco.html

For more on Sánchez and Paredes:

Blanton, Carlos Kevin. George I. Sanchez: The Long Fight For Mexican American Integration. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.

Medrano, Manuel. Américo Paredes: In his own Words, an Authorized Biography. Denton, TX: University of North Texas Press, 2010.

Paredes, Américo. “With His Pistol in His Hand”: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin Press, 1958.

Paredes, Américo, ed. Humanidad: Essays in Honor of George I. Sánchez. Los Angeles: Chicano Studies Center Publications, University of California, 1977.

For more on Black women at UT Austin and Texas:

Winegarten, Ruth. Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995.

For more on LGBTQ issues at UT Austin:

Trevino, Victor. “History of UT’s LGBT Community,” The Daily Texan, October 21, 2016, http://www.dailytexanonline.com/2016/10/21/history-of-uts-lgbt-community

“Being LGBT at the University of Texas,” Nate and Jules Project, November 18, 2011, http://nateandjulesproject.blogspot.com/

Images appearing in 360 video:

“Carlos E. Castaneda,” UT Libraries.
https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/d7/sites/default/files/castan01.jpg

“Ervin Perry,” UT Libraries. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/d7/sites/default/files/perry.jpg

“Ervin Perry,” UT Libraries. https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/d7/sites/default/files/perry02.jpg

“First African-American students to attend UT,” Tarlton Law Library, 1951. http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/african-american-graduates/1950

“Heman Sweatt,” Tarlton Law Library. https://tarltonapps.law.utexas.edu/exhibits/images/sweatt_heman.jpg

“June Brewer,” Texas State Historical Association.
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbrew

“Oscar Leonard Thompson,” UT News, 2019. https://news.utexas.edu/2019/02/05/excellence-in-the-first-degree/“President Lyndon B. Johnson,” National Park Service, 11 Aug. 2016. https://www.nps.gov/lyjo/learn/news/wreathlaying_ceremony_2016.htm

We’re now standing in front of Perry-Castaneda Library, where I’ll recite some of the lesser known history of how the University of Texas became integrated, at least in relation to black folks.
One of the reasons it’s an important landmark is because it’s named after two pioneers. One is Carlos E. Castaneda, who was a Mexican born scholar, archivist, and educator, and one of the early Latinx contributors to UT. He received a BA, MA, and PhD from UT and became the head librarian of what is now the Benson Library. He was a faculty member in History until his death in 1958. He was an important figure in Latinx participation in the University of Texas.
Ervin Perry was the first African American to be hired as a tenure-track faculty member at the University of Texas in 1964. We can see how late it was that we had our first African American faculty member. Perry was an engineer, and the second African American to be tenured at the university. Unfortunately he passed shortly thereafter, in 1970.
As we walk towards Jester, downhill towards San Jacinto Street and Waller Creek, let’s consider other black firsts at the University of Texas.
UT was integrated in 1950, at least in terms of African Americans. Heman Sweatt was allowed admission that Fall, but he was not the first African American to attend. The first African Americans to attend, five in total, came during the summer of 1950, before Sweatt got here. They were graduate students. In fact, the first black person to graduate from the University of Texas was Oscar Leonard Thompson, he graduated in 1952 with a masters degree in Zoology.
We did not allow black undergraduates to the University of Texas until 1956, which is apropos of what we’re about to see. While African Americans were allowed in, they were not allowed to stay in the whites-only dorms on campus. African American women either stayed in a small, rundown and segregated Whitis Hall, or off campus with black women students from what was then Samuel Houston College, now Huston-Tillotson University, in the Eliza Dee Co-op, down on East Avenue and 10th Street.
African American men were housed in their own segregated dorms. They were World War II barracks, placed in the flood plain along the banks of Waller Creek. As we walk towards Waller Creek, I will show you where the barracks stood on San Jacinto Boulevard.
It was not until 1964 that African American men were allowed to stay in integrated dorms. In part, because President Lyndon Baines Johnson intervened. He likely did so because his daughter was a student at the University of Texas at Austin, and was housed in a segregated dorm. Johnson likely felt that the segregated dormitories didn’t accord with his push for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, so the University of Texas was forced to integrate its dorms.
There are several other firsts at the University, around 1964. The first black person was elected to the student government, the first black person was allowed to play in the marching band, the first black person was allowed to eat in the faculty club. It was not until 1969 that the first black full professor was hired. Despite all these changes, vestiges of the previous period of intolerance remained on campus. For example, the Confederate flag flew at the University of Texas until the early fall of 2017. We’ll see where that was in a moment.

Changing...

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