Their Stories, Our Stories

Huston-Tillotson University has existed in various incarnations since 1875. This HBCU was in fact the first college or university in Austin, Texas. Their Stories, Our Stories: Four Presidents of Huston-Tillotson University is the first book about this storied institution.

No person is better suited to chronicle this history than Rosalee Martin. Upon her retirement after fifty years of service to the university, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett said, "You have preserved the history of this institution and become part of it yourself."

Their Stories, Our Stories captures Dr. Martin's fifty years, which overlapped with four university presidents from the Civil Rights era to the present. Our story starts with the third president of the institution. Dr. John Q. Taylor King Sr. came up through the ranks from student to teacher, dean, and president at age 44. Dr. Joseph T. McMillan Jr. rose to the presidency from being a member of the Board of Trustees. He brought much chaos to HT, resulting in his downfall. Dr. Larry Earvin came to HT during a time when the institution's reaffirmation was being threatened. Dr. Colette Pierce-Burnette, the first woman to lead HT, was a STEM proponent for all students, especially women.

Through Dr. Martin's meticulous biographical and institutional narrative, readers will learn the nuts and bolts of university life, its trials and triumphs, and its struggles and successes.

Dr. Rosalee Martin, a sociologist and licensed social worker, retired from Huston-Tillotson University after fifty years of teaching. A University of Texas at Austin master's and doctoral graduate, Martin was a master teacher, using her gifts of poetry, art, and writing to enhance students' learning. Her poems and art can be found in numerous anthologies, among them Experiments in a Jazz Aesthetic: Art, Activism, Academia, and the Austin Project (University of Texas Press, 2010).

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