April 2023

​

Conference Readout: HBCUs as Democracy Schools

Dr. Robert M. Ceresa, Director, Politics Lab of the James L. Farmer House

​

Students, faculty, administrators, and community partners from across Texas’ Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) came together for a remarkable event on the campus of Huston-Tillotson University (HT) on Friday-Saturday, March 31-April 1, 2023: Texas HBCU Conference Series, Year Two, Democracy Schools, Civic Capacity Building, and the HBCU.

​

A brief description of some of the accomplishments of the conference, conference events and activities, as well planning involved in organizing the conference follows.

​

The conference was a remarkable success and a glimpse into the future.  Next steps are taking shape now with students and stakeholders. Please look for opportunities to get involved and join the network building collaboration on our campuses.

​

Planning, Research, Accomplishments

• The conference was organized by a conference planning team with participation of stakeholders from all nine Texas HBCUs and community partners. Students were involved in every step of the process.

​

• Months of research, planning, and discussion took place, including trainings with students and outreach with lawmakers at the State Capital.

​

• Recalling the sacred democratic traditions that gave birth to the HBCU and that HBCUs still today represent was the purpose for the conference and guided the conference planning team’s efforts. The traditions place the contributions that HBCUs make in powerful light. Bold responsive inclusive community as a vision for American democracy is how the traditions can be summed up. The traditions have been profoundly enriched and deepened by the contributions of black Americans.

​

• Democracy schools and the HBCU. The ideal of American democracy as a responsive inclusive community is a vision for a democratic society with deep roots in American history that go all the way back to the nation’s founding. The ideal and the vision are the heart of significant movements for freedom in American history and beyond, including notably the American civil rights movement. The vision is also the heart of the American HBCU.

​

• More about the traditions. Lineaments of political thought that cohere as a broad tradition of political culture come together in the vision of American democracy as a bold responsive inclusive community. Civic republicanism, pluralist democratic theory from a realist perspective, communitarian political philosophy, progressive populism, all play a role. Adherents of the tradition are not sanguine about the challenges of race and class in American life, but they also are not cynical about them either. Central elements of the tradition include the practice of strong meaningful citizenship summed up in the idea of the citizen builder as the architect of democracy. Strong meaningful citizenship highlights the role of community life, traditions, and institutions in development of the democratic individual. Ways of knowing rooted in a sense of identity (oneself as a leader defined socially by traditions of family, faith, and community); faith in the pursuit of justice; tolerance; respect for diversity and more are all central. The tradition is marked by a belief in the dignity of work of many kinds that contributes to building the world.

​

• The Politics Lab of the James L. Farmer House at Huston-Tillotson University. After the success of the inaugural Texas HBCU conference a year ago, in the summer of 2022, the idea of American democracy as a bold responsive inclusive community became the basis of a new University institute at HT commemorating the life and legacy of James L. Farmer, Jr. Farmer is the American civil rights luminary who traces his roots as a child to Austin, Texas and Samuel Huston College, now Huston-Tillotson University, where Farmer’s father, Dr. James L. Farmer, Sr., was a faculty member, serving from 1925-1930. Farmer, Jr. founded the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE), a cornerstone organization of the American civil rights movement. CORE pioneered the use of nonviolent direct action, organizing the 1961 Freedom Rides that took an integrated group through the Deep South. A historical marker commemorating Farmer, Jr.’s life sits at the home in East Austin where the Farmer family lived. The home is only blocks from HT.

​

• An important conference goal was to bring the Texas HBCU community together to speak as one with lawmakers at the State Capital about higher education policy in Texas, including funding for Texas HBCUs both public and private. The conference planning committee believes Texas HBCUs deserve greater attention and coordinated support from state institutions for the role they play in expanding democracy (defined as strong meaningful citizenship) and building a prosperous shared Texas future. “Democracy schools” was developed to help conference stakeholders accomplish this goal. Democracy schools draws attention to the challenges of a democratic society rooted in civic capacity and community institutions. The formation of a democratic people, or strong meaningful citizenship, is how the idea can be summed up. Expanding democracy defined as strong meaningful citizenship is the historic mission HBCUs serve, and arguably no set of institutions in American life has done more to serve this purpose than the HBCU, despite well documented disparities in higher education funding in Texas in beyond that HBCUs work to overcome.

​

​

Accomplishments

• 130-plus people attended the conference. Five of nine Texas HBCUs were represented. Four institutions sent campus delegations of students, faculty/staffs, and community partners (Prairie View A&M University, Jarvis Christian University, St. Philips College, Huston-Tillotson University).

​

• Breakout sessions with faculty and practitioners in the field took place during the two days: eight presentations of scholarly research by authors, two presentations of professional practice by field experts. Preeminent American democracy theorist Dr. Harry C. Boyte presented Lessons from Rosenwald Schools Movement with scholars Shawanda Stewart, Dr. Julie E. Hudson, and Dr. Robert M. Ceresa from HT, and David Porter, who is now active in Rosenwald restoration efforts in Central Texas.

​

• Institutions presented displays of programmatic excellence.

​

• University of Texas (UT) Press was a conference exhibitor. UT Press collaborates with the Politics Lab of the James L. Farmer House at HT to publish Freedom Schools: A Journal of Democracy and Community. Freedom Schools is a new peer review academic journal developed by conference stakeholders after the Texas HBCU conference year one. Freedom Schools will public conference procedures as well as research and commentary in the tradition of democracy schools.

​

• A student roundtable offered the chance to hear testimony of HBCU students from across Texas. Conference goers heard about the role of the HBCU in students’ lives. Democracy schools came alive in the stories students told. Democracy schools prepare people for leadership defined as strong meaningful citizenship in the tradition of the citizen builder.

​

• Students accompanied by faculty and staff, conference planning team members, and community partners visited the State Capital in Austin, TX to interact with lawmakers with a direct say in shaping Texas higher education policy. The request to legislators that the conference groups prepared was that lawmakers form a statewide Texas legislative HBCUs caucus that would be a vehicle for ongoing conversation and planning among lawmakers with HBCUs in their districts and others who support the historic mission and purpose HBCUs serve. The goal of the caucus would be the creation of resources and support through public policy for Texas HBCUs, both private and public, in a manner that is commensurate with the contributions and the role that HBCUs play in building a shared future in Texas.

​

• Preparing for the visits. To prepare students and others for the visits, conference goers learned about practical hands-on organizing skill of broad-based community organizing rooted in faith traditions in a training provided by leaders and organizers from the Public Leadership-Central Texas Interfaith Project. Strong meaningful citizenship from civic studies was a major focus of the training.

​

• The visits. Among the many visits the groups made included conversations with Republican Senator Bryan Hughes, Democratic Representative Ron Reynolds, and senior staff members from various Senate and House Offices.

​

• Students heard a legislators’ discussion panel to learn about resources, strategies, and action steps to take to collaborate with lawmakers and HBCU leaders to address development and support for Texas HBCUs. Students heard from two lawmakers representing Huston-Tillotson University in the State Legislature – State Representative Sheryl Cole and State Senator Sarah Eckhardt. Both have a track record of support for Texas HBCUs.

​