Both schools started on the same day, March 7th 1927.
During segregation TSU was established as the (don’t want to write what it was called) version of what is today U of H.
Both schools became Universities at the same time.
Both schools are part of the third ward community.
We are now in 2024 almost 100 years when this horrific injustice took place.
What could both schools gain from this?
Above all unity. Isn’t what education and this case public education is fundamentally about? The entire third ward would be truly reunited. This would be the first time in close to 100 years. Speak about a statement to to all. Remember that TSU should have never been created in a perfect world. Joining forces can only make each other stronger. The third ward neighborhood by all accounts from past and current residents went into a bad recession after segregation ended. Today 45% do not have a High School diploma or live under poverty lines. It was never intended to be that way but its. Some mention gentrification but also these same naysayers are not mentioning the affordable housing being created.
It is a fascinating subject. But isn’t TSU and U of H within a fingertip of a distance within each other the worst racist legacy that the City of Houston has today?
Bluntly, yes. Much in the same way we would riot if UH got folded into the UT system. There’s a lot of antipathy there, and rightfully so with the way that UH has been licking its chops looking at the school across Scott Street for the last, like, half-century.
I’m sure TSU would like the money the state withheld it vis a vis UH over the years. That’s a state issue however, not ours strictly.
But integration seems like a step too far. That’s like asking all the individual universities to unite as a single University of Texas. Too much loss of control.
I am raising the question because TSU was created to be an African American (the orinal term should be banned forever) By doing so we finally repair that horrific injustice.
Remember friends that TSU like schools are only prevalent in cartain part of the country.
Yes, TSU was created because Higher Education in Texas was segregated. I’d be shocked if literally anyone on this board is unaware of that history. But folding an HBCU into the PWI across the street would be taken, rightly, as an erasure of the history and independence of a culturally-important institution. It would deepen the injustice and build on its legacy, not repair it.
Even if TSU were to join a system at some point, I’d wager that the UHS would be their absolute last choice. Which, incidentally, is why I’m of a mind that UH and its alums, supporters, and fans should do absolutely everything in our power to ensure that TSU has the means to stay independent, lest we wind up across the street from a branch of the UT or A&M systems.
imo, this is the only discussion worthy topic on this thread. There is a deep cultural problem from within that has to be solved. I taugh in the 2nd ward, and near gunspoint (greenspoint). Students from those neighborhoods would travel out of district just to get a better education often. Those that remain were WAY behind at the college level, no shocker HISD got taken over by the state.
Two, I was always facinated when comparing my nigerian, cameroon, kenyan, trinidad, jamaican students to for lack of better words domestic blacks. The cultural and value differences could not be any more profound. Obviously not an absolute, but to me… its clearly a cultural problem.
In saying that, I met a (black) dad way out here in san marcos who was damn proud sending his daughter to UH, and asked me what I thought of UH. He saw my UH hoodie.
That is an excellent point and oh so timely since they did not sell the land. Again at the core of both schools we are the same but were divided by the collors of our skin.
Part of the “secret sauce” here is that the US is extraordinarily expensive on a global scale, and moving overseas is a costly endeavor in its own right, so anybody who has the means to move overseas to the US is almost certainly one of the wealthier people in their home country. Given that wealth correlates pretty strongly with educational attainment, even if they’re relatively low-income by US standards, you probably have at least one postsecondary degree in the family.
The optics on this one would be different, though, to such an extent that I’m not convinced we win. If TSU goes to the legislature and tells them that joining the UTS is what they’ve determined is best to secure the future of their university, and it’s a matter of letting UT get UT-H or shuttering an HBCU, it’s a pretty hard sell that forcing them to join the UHS instead is better.
Granted, I’m confident that maintaining their independence is their strong first choice. But they’re also constantly teetering on the brink of financial insolvency, to the extent that it’s not out of the question they’d be faced with the decision to either join a system or shutter. Which is why we need to do what we can to make sure it doesn’t get there.