The Hill We Climbed; Prairie View a & M University

Founded in 1876, Prairie View A&M University is the second-oldest public institution of higher learning in Texas, one of two Texas land-grant universities, and an “institution of the first class” within the Texas A&M University System. It is also the first public historically Black college or university (HBCU) in Texas. Prairie View A&M has played a pivotal role in the educational and economic experiences of African American Texans. As the university celebrates its sesquicentennial in 2026, editors Will Guzmán and William T. Hoston document and interpret the actions of important individuals, campus institutions, and cultural traditions that made Prairie View A&M what it is today.

The Hill We Climbed: Prairie View A&M University complements former Prairie View professor George R. Woolfolk’s classic 1962 work Prairie View: A Study in Public Conscience, 1878–1946 and Michael Nojeim’s 2011 Down that Road: A Pictorial History of Prairie View A&M University to further contextualize Prairie View A&M’s place among HBCUs, higher education in general, and Texas Black life in particular. Prairie View A&M University has a long and rich history, of which past literature provides only a small sampling. In celebrating the 150–year anniversary of the founding of this historically Black institution, The Hill We Climbed documents how the university continues to fulfill its historic mission, encapsulating PVAMU’s motto: “Prairie View produces productive people.”

WILL GUZMÁN, formerly professor of history at Prairie View A&M University, presently serves as assistant vice chancellor of International Programs and Community Engagement at North Carolina Central University. He is also the author of Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands: Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and Black Activism. WILLIAM T. HOSTON is a professor of political science at Prairie View A&M University. He is the author of Toxic Silence: Race, Black Gender Identity, and Addressing the Violence against Black Transgender Women in Houston and The Fight for Black Liberation: Breaking the Political Strings in the Trump Era.