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Hardball History: Who Gets to Speak?

Shared Authority

 

Shared authority, discussed by Stanton, refers to the collaborative process between historians and the communities they engage with to interpret and present history. Rather than historians being the sole narrators of the past, shared authority invites input from people whose lived experiences, memories, and cultural perspectives shape historical understanding.

Hardball History: Who Gets to Speak?
Image of Dr. Cathy Stanton used for her course syllabus at Tufts University

Dr. Cathy Stanton

Image of Dr. Cathy Stanton used for her course syllabus at Tufts University

Stanton’s Argument

Stanton’s main argument in Hardball History is that public historians can’t avoid the political nature of their work, especially when engaging with communities and controversial histories. She explains that while some historians try to stay neutral or avoid being labeled as activists, the reality is that public history often involves taking a stand, whether it is intentional or not. 

Discussion Questions

How does Stanton suggest historians should approach politically charged historical work?

Stanton argues that historians shouldn’t shy away from politics. Instead, they should acknowledge the political nature of public history and embrace their role as advocates when necessary. Trying to stay “neutral” often reinforces dominant power structures. 

How can shared authority change the way we think about museums, monuments, or historical sites?

It can lead to more honest, inclusive, and community-centered interpretations. Rather than presenting a single “official” story, these spaces can become platforms for dialogue, healing, and truth-telling

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Buried Legacies: How Racial Segregation Has Silenced HBCU Histories—and How Public History Can Speak Back

 

The significance and history of HBCU’s

HBCU’s were created to educate African Americans which during this time were majority enslaved or were refuse admissions into collegiate institutions.

Across the landscape of American higher education, few institutions carry the weight of legacy, resilience, and resistance like Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Yet, despite their significance, many HBCUs continue to struggle against forces that have historically sought to silence or erase their institutional histories. Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU), the second-oldest public institution of higher learning in Texas, is no exception.

Students at Howard University Pharmacy school in 1900
Students at Howard University Pharmacy school in 1900

Erasure by Design; The Legacy of Segregation and Resource Hoarding 

The effects of racial segregation have extended far beyond the classroom walls. At institutions like PVAMU, segregation wasn’t just about keeping Black students separate from white students—it was about controlling access to power, visibility, and historical legitimacy. Public funding disparities, limited archival preservation, and outright neglect have all contributed to the marginalization of PVAMU’s institutional memory.

For decades, the Texas A&M University System funneled resources disproportionately toward its flagship, Texas A&M University in College Station, while PVAMU—its HBCU counterpart—was often left underfunded and undervalued. This resource hoarding has tangible effects: deteriorating infrastructure, underfunded academic programs, and, critically, the slow erosion of institutional history. When there is no investment in archives, faculty research, or public memory projects, the stories that define a campus—and a people—fade into obscurity.

Invisible Histories, Missing Voices

The physical campus of PVAMU tells stories in whispers. Historical buildings go unmarked. Foundational figures remain unknown to current students. There’s no shortage of history here—just a shortage of support for telling it. How many students know that PVAMU was built on the grounds of a former slave plantation? Or that its founding was tied directly to Black Reconstruction politics? These are not footnotes; they are central to the American story.

How Pvamu can lead the way

• Establish a Public History Center: Create a dedicated space for researching, archiving, and sharing PVAMU’s past. This center could support oral histories, digital archives, and exhibitions that center Black agency and institutional legacy.

• Curriculum Integration: Embed PVAMU’s institutional history into general education courses. Let students learn about their own academic ancestors as part of their educational journey.

• Community Collaboration: Partner with local museums, libraries, and elders to preserve histories that exist beyond the campus gates. PVAMU is deeply tied to the surrounding Black communities—those stories deserve a spotlight too.

• Digital Desegregation: Use social media, podcasts, and digital storytelling to bring PVAMU’s history into wider public view. Accessibility is key to countering erasure.

• Student Involvement: Encourage students to become historians of their own institution. Through research projects, campus tours, and creative expression, students can transform memory into movement.

Buried Legacies: How Racial Segregation Has Silenced HBCU Histories—and How Public History Can Speak Back

1876

A picture of a building at an angle with the sky in the background
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RACIAL SEGREGATIONS IMPACT ON HBCUS??????

The Impact of Segregation

Racial segregation is the systematic separation of the races on all levels. Educationally, residentially, socially, etc. The question is speaking to the first one, education. Racial segregation impacts education by the refusal to provide adequate resources. The system has given predominantly BI-POC schools outdated textbooks, teachers with no degrees, and no money. This leads to students receiving a subpar education, which then sets them up for failure if they decide to go to college.

HBCUs are colleges born out of African Americans need for education directly after becoming freedmen. Unfortunately, these schools are criminally underfunded compared to their PWI counterparts. This leads to many problems within these institutions. Personally, I have seen many problems with outdated buildings and AC issues. I have heard our school, Prairie View, lacks the resources to properly invite different prospects. I have also heard that due to the lack of funding our archives are in shambles. This can lead to a loss of all types of historical material.

There could be historical events hosted about the history of the plantation, Hempstead, and the surrounding area. There can be an exhibit done that includes alumni, descendants, and other residents of Prairie View. As long as the project intends to include the community and isn’t worried about profit making the outcome should be satisfactory. It can be a moment that really impacts the current student body and could be a shining example of what other institutions can do. It can be a model to tell the racial stories in other universities.

Racial Segregation, Resource Hoarding, and the Erasure of Institutional History at HBCUs: A Case Study at PVAMU

Overview 

This blog post examines how racial segregation and systemic resource hoarding have contributed to the erasure of institutional histories at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We will use one of the most prestige historically black universities as our focus, other known as Prairie View A&M University. An important key factor to remember about the illustrious institution of PVAMU, is the academic programs that are set into place it explores the structural mechanisms that have limited archival development, hindered historical preservation, and marginalized the visibility of Black educational institutions in broader academic and public discourse.

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One of Pvamu landmarks

A Deeper Insight 

Historically, segregation did not simply manifest into physical separation; the psychological effects of race “separation “  rolled into the 2000’s after the raging influence of Jim Crow laws. While legal segregation ended in the mid-20th century, its structural legacy remains evident in educational disparities. HBCUs have faced chronic underfunding relative to predominantly white institutions often referred to as PWIs, a pattern often called resource hoarding. This unequal distribution has impaired archival development, preservation initiatives, and broader institutional documentation. As a result, the histories of HBCUs have frequently been omitted from public narratives and academic recognition. PVAMU’s experience illustrates this phenomenon. Founded in 1876, it remains one of the oldest public HBCUs in the United States. Yet its history is frequently omitted from state and national narratives. Public resources have favored PWIs, and initiatives to preserve PVAMU’s archival materials have historically lacked sustained support. These disparities reveal a broader pattern of institutional neglect that reflects the long-term consequences of racialized funding structures.Efforts to counteract this erasure have emerged through public history initiatives. Public history offers a corrective to this erasure. By prioritizing access, engagement, and collective memory, public history can function as a form of institutional and racial repair. At PVAMU, projects such as the Digital PV Panther Projectrepresent early steps toward this goal. Through digitization, oral history collection, and student-led archival work, such initiatives challenge the historical marginalization of HBCUs.

How are PVAMU Scholars holding their institution accountable? 

Projects like the Digital PV Panther Project—funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities—represent an attempt to reclaim historical narratives through digital preservation, oral history collection, and student-led archival work. Such efforts serve not only to document PVAMU’s past but to actively resist the epistemic marginalization that segregation produced.

To achieve more substantive forms of racial desegregation, public history must extend beyond symbolic inclusion. It must prioritize equitable resource allocations , academic recognition, and the active mission of the Black institutional narrative. At PVAMU, this could include community-archival partnerships, interactive history installations, and curricular integration of institutional history.

Ultimately, this case highlights the ongoing impact of segregation on historical representation and the necessity of public history as a reparative tool. By reclaiming control over its narrative, PVAMU can challenge the structural forces that have obscured its legacy and affirm its place within the broader landscape of American higher education.

(note1):

Substantial NEH grant helping to eliminate silences, erasures surrounding history of PVAMU

 

(note2): vague resources from article listed below 

Amy Earhart, “Can We Trust the University?: Digital Humanities Collaborations with Historically Exploited Cultural Communities,” in Bodies of Information:

Intersectional Feminism and the Digital Humanities, edited by Elizabeth Losh and Jacqueline Wernimont (University of Minnesota Press, 2018), 369-90.

https://doi.org/10.5749/j.ctv9hj9r9.23.

The Impact Of Segreation at HBCUs

One of Pvamu landmarks

Segregation and resource hoarding

Racial segregation and resource hoarding have had a huge impact on historically black colleges. Including our institution, Prairie View A&M University. Marginalizing our contributions, limiting access that keeps our platform while promoting our legacies, and underfunding our development. These forces have not only stopped our growth, but also our academic growth. These issues have also led to our campus being belittled and our institutional narratives being rich. Over time, HBCUs were chronically underfunded. By this cause it began to limit the ability to create archives, scholarly centers, or even museums that would help preserve our campus culture. If these items were being properly preserved, our culture could have been more promoted, and also all the academic contributions that have taken place.

Loss of Instution Memory

Due to the lack of funding for HBCUs, many of these institutions struggled to keep up with proper archives. Such as photographs, documents, and oral history projects, which have all made up the campus, were lost or not properly preserved because there was no safe place to store these memories. Which means the stories of student activism, black traditions, and faculty innovation were not properly documented or even celebrated due to the lack of funding historically black colleges receive.

Achieving Racial Desegregation

In order to properly desegregate the narrative and give Prairie View A&M University its proper representation, they must focus on the black knowledge that surrounds PVAMU. The first step that can be done is to establish the campus history in the curriculum. That way, students will become engaged with the campus they walk on every day, and also know the background and importance of even being on this campus. Next, establish a public history initiative, while lastly incorporating art and cultural commemoration. All of these strategies will allow PVAMU to be acknowledged for the excellence that lives here while still honoring what came before us, even though we were not physically able to see it .

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Broken Education!

HBCU Experience

Group of Black colleges

Some of many Black university people attend to.This represents the group of schools that are consitly getting excluded/shorthanded.Picture (James A.Foshay Learning Center)

HBCU Lost history/information

HBCU colleges

HBCUs are much diffrent then Pwi or any community college.Yes,these Black universites recive benifits,but there noting compared to what Pwi schools receive.According to Amy E. Earhart “Historical abuse of communities and systemic inequalities present formidable challages for those who seek parternship.(pg,369)”Black schools lack the knowladge of our history and resources.Our Black universitys already started with low funding and as that progressed oppurtunity for students was shortened.Also,HBCUs are missing alot of history due to them not being able to document.So HBCUs are still trying to recover the history so they can share with the school and display those fellow students achievements.Also Amy talks about digital humanities. “Efforts to build partnerships to explore race related histories of our communities,are necessarily inflicted by past and presnt events.”When HBCUs were established and the Black community began to fund/envolve themselves with HBCUs history wasnt being perserved like a PWI.People didnt see the importance in archiving black academic history,so now history is lost and scattered beacuse we didnt take advantage of history.

Change

We will overcome desegragation through public history.Public History is voicing the people who never had a voice.Public history seeks out history that has been lost or overlooked to bring a community back whole agin.So with this tool implace our HBCUs will begin to build up and the students will also.

Works Cited

Amy E. Earhart.”Can We Trust The University”pg-369-389.

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HBCUs

The Marching Storm band performing during halftime. Photo by Nazareth Brooks 10/25/24

PVAMU Homecoming Game

The Marching Storm band performing during halftime. Photo by Nazareth Brooks 10/25/24

Racial segregation between HBCUs

Racial segregation has contributed to the erasure of institutional history at HBCUs in multiple ways, including funding disparities, land-grant inequities, and narrative control.

Due to systemic racial inequalities, HBCUs have long struggled with funding. State governments and federal funding programs often prioritize predominantly white institutions, leaving HBCUs with fewer resources for preservation and development.

Many HBCUs, including PVAMU, were established as land-grant institutions but do not receive the financial support needed to preserve their own history. This lack of funding limits their ability to maintain archives, historical buildings, and other essential resources.

Lastly, narrative control plays a significant role. In education and media, the contributions and significance of HBCUs are often overlooked or downplayed. This lack of representation shapes public perception and further marginalizes these institutions.

Racial desegregation through public history at PVAMU

There are several ways we can work toward substantive racial desegregation through public history at PVAMU. One approach is storytelling—creating more platforms to showcase PVAMU’s history. This could include making documentaries or establishing a “History Day,” where history classes across campus visit the digital archives to explore the university’s collected history.

Another important method is gathering oral histories from PVAMU alumni, faculty, and staff. Their firsthand accounts can provide valuable insight into the university’s past and how it has evolved over the years.

How Does Politics Effect Public History?

Politics in Public History

I think that there is no way to separate the fields of politics and public history. One of the key aspects of public history is community engagement, learning the people’s stories, understanding their plights and what they want to tell. Those stories and those people’s lives are political. Two people could tell widely different stories of the same event depending on their perceptions of what it is. The inclusion or exclusion of certain elements in a story reflect those perceptions.

From the text by Faith Davis Ruffins, we get a tale about African American museums. We learn about the history of these museums and how they came to be. How there was so much fight to get these places built despite America systematically making it difficult for these projects to flourish. In the book it says, “These men and women grew up in segregated circumstances, whether in southern towns or northern urban neighborhoods. These men and women were nurtured by historically Black institutions… Above all, these men and women all shared in common deep exposure and dedication to the ‘Negro Canon.’” (pg. 28-29). Doing work in the field of  Public history will require that a person engage with marginalized people to hear those untold stories of segregation, the plight of the reservation, etc.

Another example from a chapter in the book Radical Roots by Lara Kelland. In the chapter the author speaks about the creation of Indigenous American Colleges and the rise of LGBTQ+ activism after the Stonewall riots. I’d like to focus on the latter, in this quote the author says, “Although many LGBTQ researchers began to develop LGBTQ historiography as they learned to work within existing mainstream repositories, other activists began to cultivate separatist organizations, providing community-controlled archival spaces for those seeking to learn more about queer history.” (Pg 508). The interesting thing about this quote is that the LGBTQ researchers had to exist and work within an existing mainstream. The mainstream excludes certain narratives even when those people with those narratives advocate for themselves. The exclusions are inherently political. There is no separation between the people and the politics that govern their lives.

man holding up sign demanding justice for George Floyd

Why is Public history politcally charged?

The Politics of Public History: Balancing Activism, Objectivity, and Ethics

man holding up sign demanding justice for George Floyd
man holding up sign demanding justice for George Floyd

Public history is inherently political, as it involves interpreting, preserving, and presenting the past in ways that reflect contemporary values and power structures. Historians working in public history must grapple with the tension between political engagement and the expectation of professional objectivity. However, as Fath Davis Ruffins, Jeff Hayward, Christine Larouche, Lara Kelland, M. M. Schlehofer, K. Wagner, E. Bramande, Brian Murphy, and Katie Owens-Murphy argue, public historians can engage in political activism while adhering to ethical principles, especially when addressing marginalized histories and confronting contemporary social issues.

Politics as an Inescapable Force in Public History

Fath Davis Ruffins, in “Building Homes for Black History: Museum Founders, Founding Directors, and Pioneers, 1915–95,” demonstrates how Black museum founders intentionally shaped public history to counter the erasure of African American experiences. By creating institutions dedicated to Black history, such as the DuSable Museum of African American History and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, they engaged in political activism through historical preservation. Ruffins’ work illustrates that public history often emerges as a direct response to political and social injustice, making activism an inherent part of the field.

Jeff Hayward and Christine Larouche, in “The Emergence of the Field of African American Museums,” further highlight the political motivations behind Black museums. These institutions were not only sites of historical preservation but also hubs of resistance, advocacy, and community empowerment. Their analysis reveals that public historians working in these spaces frequently blended activism with historical interpretation, challenging the notion that political engagement undermines professional integrity.

 

Activism and Objectivity: Striking a Balance

Lara Kelland’s “Unintentional Public Historians: Collective Memory and Identity Production in the American Indian and LGBTQ Liberation Movements” explores how grassroots activists have inadvertently become public historians. By creating archives and preserving oral histories, these movements have shaped public memory and identity politics. Kelland argues that such activist-driven public history projects demonstrate that objectivity does not require neutrality but rather a commitment to accuracy, inclusivity, and transparency.

Similarly, M. M. Schlehofer, K. Wagner, and E. Bramande’s study, “Things Will Get Worse Before They Get Better,” explores how the 2020 U.S. presidential election influenced LGBTQ+ public history projects. Their research reveals how the political climate intensified efforts to document and preserve LGBTQ+ narratives, recognizing that activism and public history often intersect during periods of social and political tension. This demonstrates that public historians can ethically engage in activism by documenting the struggles of marginalized groups without compromising accuracy.

Confronting White Rage: The Ethical Imperative of Political Engagement

Brian Murphy and Katie Owens-Murphy, in “Public History in the Age of Insurrection: Confronting White Rage in Red States,” argue that public historians have an ethical responsibility to address contemporary political realities. They examine how public historians in conservative regions face challenges when confronting issues of race, racism, and insurrection. Their work underscores that avoiding political engagement can itself be a political act—one that risks enabling historical distortion and injustice.

The Appropriate Level of Political Engagement

While public historians cannot avoid politics, they must engage responsibly by adhering to ethical standards. This means being transparent about their perspectives, prioritizing accuracy, and fostering inclusive narratives. As the authors collectively demonstrate, political activism in public history can be ethical and professional when it seeks to amplify marginalized voices, challenge historical inaccuracies, and promote critical engagement with the past. Avoiding activism in the face of injustice may compromise the field’s ethical obligations.

Ultimately, public history is not a neutral endeavor. It is shaped by power, identity, and politics. By embracing a nuanced and ethical form of political engagement, public historians can remain professionally objective while advancing a more just and representative historical record.

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A Young Historian

People gather around the Martin Luther King Jr. statue on UT Austin's campus on MLK Day in January 2020.

Product of my enviorment Dena Miles

Family infront of statue of Martin Luther King Jr.

Growing up in Austin, Texas, a city known for its progressive spirit and vibrant diversity, influenced my passion for history at a young age, as political activism is deeply ingrained in the city’s culture! I vividly remember attending marches annually that began early in the morning, starting at the University of Texas at Austin campus statue of Martin Luther King Jr. Next, moving to the state capital for a keynote speech from a leader of the community, and lastly, ending at the historic Huston Tillotson campus, Austin’s first institution of higher learning, and is also the city’s only Historically Black College and University. 

I’ve learned firsthand the importance of understanding the past to shape a better future by instilling a seed in the minds of our youth. My degree track is a degree in history with a concentration in education, which drives my passion to gain an inclusive understanding and shape the minds of our youth to be more culturally aware critical thinkers. Witnessing my mother’s 20-year dedication to teaching, I’ve gained invaluable insight and understanding that helped further solidify my track.

I’ve always been captivated by the question of how we got here. That inherent curiosity ultimately led me to choose history as my major during my undergraduate studies. In my pursuits to gain the best understanding of how human relations and innovation produced modern society, I’ve discovered a more profound appreciation for the social science of History. Learning that history is more than memorizing dates and names, but it is more importantly about understanding the patterns that have shaped humanity, both for the better and for the worse.

Initially, the prospect of learning the entire history of the world felt overwhelming. However, I quickly discovered that college breaks down this vast subject into manageable pieces, allowing me to delve into the most compelling historical subsections. Each semester offers a new opportunity to explore a different facet of the human story, making my education journey exciting and deeply insightful. 

This semester, I am taking Dr. Moore’s public history course, which has deepened my understanding of social injustices that have led to the erasure of  African American culture and history through practices like archival suppression, a theme explored in our discussions on archival administration activism and “The Myth.” This concept refers to the inherent biases embedded in the neutral vocabulary and vague descriptions used within archives. After being assigned the reading “The Hubris of Neutrality in Archives” by Sam Winn, I recognized the compelling argument that biases significantly influence the work of archivists. The privilege and perspective my esteemed peers offer will also be forever valuable as we often discuss social injustice issues and frequently recognize the ongoing nature of these problems. I personally concluded from the readings and subsequent class discussions that achieving true neutrality in archival practices is unattainable and detracts from archivists’ ethical responsibility to preserve diverse histories. Acknowledging the biased practices that often remain unknown and unchallenged was a very enlightening experience that reshaped my perspective as a public historian, showing how important it is as critical thinkers entering the historical work force that we construct a more inclusive environment for future generations by first learning to be more mindful of the nuanced details that will influence the narratives.

Specifically as a history student attending the best HBCU in Texas known as Prairie View A & M, I benefit from the university’s rich historical ties to the land. Prairie View A&M’s origins as a former plantation connect to the broader context of systematic oppression as we studied the transition from the Alta Vista plantation to an agricultural and mechanical school. My experience at PVAMU has opened my eyes to the complexities of systemic discrimination like the one within the university’s operations. Our university’s founding sought to provide an education for Black individuals while operating under the authority of Texas A&M. This history reveals that despite being unable to attend Texas A&M at the time, we were still marginalized, and so-called “separate but equal” with significant disparities in resource allocation and funding. This realization gives me a unique perspective as a historian, allowing me to observe how historical discrimination continues to affect our community today. 




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