Collection Overview

Title of Collection: The DeWayne Charleston Collection 

Dates: 2004 – 2025 

Extent: Less than one linear foot. 

Related Collections: None

Access Restrictions: This collection is open for research. 

Use Restrictions: No permission must be obtained before publishing quotations, excerpts, or images from any materials in this collection.

Language: English 

Biographical Note: DeWayne Everett Charleston (June 30, 1963–June 3, 2025) was a Waller County, Texas, publisher, journalist, civic leader, elected judge, and longtime advocate for African American political participation, civil rights, and the history of Prairie View A&M University. Born on the campus of Prairie View A&M University to Rev. Cube and Nellie Charleston, he grew up in a family deeply connected to Prairie View, Black church life, printing, education, and community service. His father, a 1952 graduate of Prairie View A&M College, worked in printing, served as a minister, and led Cub Scout Pack 141, providing an early model for Charleston’s own commitment to public service and local institution-building. 

Charleston attended North Texas State University, now the University of North Texas, where he studied political science and history. He became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., in 1982. After completing his degree, he worked in the administration of Texas Governor Ann Richards and later continued his theological studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. In 1993, he married Amy Henderson; together they raised two children, Christiana DiNell and Christopher DeWayne. 

Beginning in 1989, Charleston built a long career in community journalism and printing. As publisher and editor of Prairie View Magazine, he used the publication to document Black life in Prairie View, Hempstead, Waller County, and the broader Texas HBCU community. The magazine combined local news, editorials, historical interpretation, church and civic coverage, community recognition, student achievement, political commentary, and advertising for area businesses. Charleston described the publication as part of the “free Black press” in Waller County and saw it as a vehicle for preserving local memory, amplifying community voices, and challenging inequities in public life. 

Charleston was also a prominent political organizer and public official. In 2003, he became the first African American elected judge in Waller County. His activism included organizing and participating in campaigns for voting rights, particularly those affecting Prairie View A&M University students. He helped lead major marches in Hempstead in 2004 and 2008 and remained outspoken about voter suppression, racial inequality, public representation, and the treatment of Prairie View A&M University within the Texas A&M University System. His published editorials regularly situated contemporary issues within longer histories of slavery, segregation, disfranchisement, lynching, land dispossession, and Black institutional survival in Waller County. 

In later years, Charleston became an advocate for prostate-cancer awareness after surviving advanced cancer for approximately sixteen years. His experience informed the creation of the DeWayne Charleston Foundation, which promoted prevention, public awareness, and equitable prostate-cancer research, particularly within African American communities. Throughout his life, he remained connected to Prairie View through publishing, public speaking, mentoring, youth football coaching, civic advocacy, and historical preservation. The DeWayne Charleston Collection documents his work as a publisher, activist, public official, community historian, and advocate for the people and institutions of Prairie View and Waller County. 

Scope & Contents: The DeWayne Charleston Collection contains publications, personal papers, and audiovisual materials documenting Charleston’s work in community journalism, historical interpretation, and civic advocacy in Prairie View and Waller County, Texas. Materials date from 2004 to 2025 and include undated items. The collection centers on Charleston’s publishing activities and efforts to document Black community life, promote Prairie View, and advocate for voting rights and changes to public commemoration. 

Publications constitute the largest portion of the collection. Selected issues of Prairie View Magazine date from April 2015 through June 2023, with most inventoried issues concentrated in 2022–2023. These holdings represent an incomplete run. Additional publications include the Winter 2016 and Winter 2022 issues of 1876 Magazine and editions of Come Home to Prairie View from 2019 and 2020. Together, these publications provide sources for examining local journalism, community identity, civic promotion, and relationships between Prairie View A&M University and surrounding communities. 

Personal papers include an undated item titled “A Letter from the Ancestors,” a petition to rename Liendo Parkway as Freedom Parkway, and a 2025 commemorative publication titled “Celebrating the Life and Legacy.” These materials document aspects of Charleston’s historical interests, civic advocacy, and remembrance. Audiovisual holdings described in the finding aid include a self-produced compilation video on DVD documenting the 2004 March to Hempstead, associated with advocacy for Prairie View A&M University students’ voting rights. 

The collection supports research on the Black press, African American political participation, student voting rights, public memory, and community life in Prairie View and Waller County. Its strongest documentation concerns Charleston’s publications and selected civic activities; it does not constitute a comprehensive record of his personal life or public career. 

Arrangement: Collection is arranged in two series by subject and format. Series are arranged within each series in chronological order. 

• Series I – Prairie View Magazine 
• Series II – 1876 Magazine 
• Series III – Come Home to Prairie View 
• Series IV – Personal Papers 
• Series V – Videos 

Administrative Information

Acquisition: PVAMU Assistant Professor of History and WDPL Director T. DeWayne Moore received a cardboard box containing several hundred copies of Prairie View Magazine from DeWayne Charleston in the summer of 2025. Pamela Morgan invited Dr. Moore and his research assistant, Evelyn Todd, to his home in Prairie View following his release from the hospital. Mr. Charleston also donated DVDs of March to Hempstead in 2004. 

Preferred Citation: The DeWayne Charleston Collection, WDPL 0002, Woolfolk Digital Preservation Lab (WDPL). School of Culture, Community, and Human Development (SCCHD), Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU). 

Subject Terms: DeWayne Charleston, Prairie View Magazine, African American journalism, Prairie View A&M University, Student voting rights, Waller County, Texas, African American civic activism 

Inventory