Living History

Jimmie James, age 59, was raised by a single mother in Huntsville, Texas. His family's home near Boettcher's Mill had no plumbing or electricity. Yet, he and his siblings made the best of things. After attending Prairie View A&M, and working for ExxonMobil, James was free to pursue one of his true passions: golf. Last year, he toured the one hundred greatest golf courses in America. Join us for a conversation about his experience. And, read about James's golf game here: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/a-regular-golfers-quest-to-play-americas-100-greatest-courses-in-one-year.

In this episode, Dr. Wesley Phelps sits down for a conversation with Dr. Linda White to discuss how she became involved in Bridges to Life after the murder of her daughter.

In this episode, Dr. Jeff Littlejohn and Graduate Assistant Jami Horne sit down for a conversation with Dr. Richard Watkins about his experiences battling racial segregation and discrimination in Huntsville, Texas.

In this episode, Alexander Dodd, Heather Howsmon, and Andres Rendon interview Professor Mark Lentz about his new book, Murder in Merida, 1792, which appeared with the University of New Mexico Press in May 2018. For more information see: http://unmpress.com/books.php?ID=20000000008060.

In this episode, co-host Wesley Phelps and guest host Jannah Nerren speak with Sam Houston State University President Dana Hoyt about her experience as one of the few female university presidents in Texas.

Dr. Reginald K. Ellis is an Associate Professor of History at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) in Tallahassee, Florida. His undergraduate and MA degrees in history come from Florida A&M, and he received the PhD in history from the University of Memphis in 2011. Dr. Ellis has written numerous articles on the African American struggle to achieve equal educational opportunities at the collegiate level. His new book, Between Washington and DuBois: The Racial Politics of James Edward Shepard, appeared with the University of Florida Press this fall.

Our interview will focus on Prof. Ellis’s new book as well as his forthcoming article entitled, “Florida State Normal and Industrial School for Coloreds: Thomas DeSalle Tucker and His Radical Approach to Black Higher Education,” which will appear in The Seedtime, The Work, and The Harvest: New Perspectives on the Black Freedom Struggle in America (Florida University Press, 2018).

A native of Fort Worth, Texas, E.R. Bills is the author of The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas as well as Black Holocaust: The Paris Horror and a Legacy of Texas Terror. Mr. Bills received a BA in journalism from Southwest Texas State University and does freelance historical, editorial and travel writing for publications around Texas.

Phillip Luke Sinitiere is an author and professor specializing in American religious studies and African American history. He attended Sam Houston State University and the University of Houston, where he earned a PhD in 2009. He has published numerous articles and books on topics ranging from W.E.B. DuBois to Joel Olsteen. Sinitiere’s work focuses on the Civil Rights Movement going into the present day. He has taught at the 2nd Baptist School, Houston Baptist University, U of H, and SHSU. He is currently a professor at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston, Texas.

A native of Opelousas, Louisiana, Dr. Merline Pitre is a professor of History and former Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Behavioral Sciences at Texas Southern University. Dr. Pitre began her career in the 1960s as a French professor at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina. After several years teaching foreign language, she enrolled at Temple University to pursue a degree in History. She completed her PhD in 1976 and then took a job at Texas Southern University in Houston.

Dr. Pitre has written several important works during her career. Her first monograph, Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: The Black Leadership of Texas, 1868 to 1898 (1985) has shaped the study of Reconstruction in Texas for an entire generation of scholars. Pitre’s other major work, In Struggle against Jim Crow: Lulu B. White and the NAACP, 1900-1957, appeared in 1999, and resulted in Lula White’s addition to the state-wide social studies curriculum in Texas public schools.

Pitre has received numerous awards for her contributions to historical study. She was named Scholar of the Year at Texas Southern University in 1987. The following year, she received the Outstanding Black Texan Award from the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. In more recent years, she served as the first African American president of the Texas State Historical Association in 2011 and received the Lorraine Williams Leadership Award from the Association of Black Women Historians in 2014.

Erik Gellman is Associate Professor of History and Director of African American Studies at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Gellman holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University. His first book The Gospel of the Working Class: Labor’s Southern Prophets in the New Deal America coauthored with Jarod Roll, argued that Christianity became a driving force for the Southern workingmen’s political and economic advancement in the New Deal era. By examining the lives of two preachers and labor activists, Owen Whitfield and Claude Williams, Gellman explained an unusual and innovative link between labor and religious history. In 2012, Gellman published Death Blow to Jim Crow, which examines the birth and development of the National Negro Congress and its role as a militant civil rights organization in the mid-twentieth century.

Serena Barbieri is a graduate student in history at Sam Houston State University.