Ceremony Honors Award Winners

Top: Gov. Rick Perry, Priscilla Rodriguez and Larry Lof of the Brownsville Historical Association, Brownsville City Commissioner Edward Camarillo, and Humanities Texas Executive Director Michael L. Gillette. Joseph R. Krier, Humanities Texas board chair, in background. Bottom: Clifton Caldwell, Gov. Perry, Shirley Caldwell, and Michael L. Gillette. Photographs by Martin Kohout.

Gov. Rick Perry presented Clifton and Shirley Caldwell and the Brownsville Historical Association with the inaugural Humanities Texas Awards in a ceremony at the Texas Capitol on January 24. The awards recognize imaginative leadership in the humanities on a local, regional or state level and carry a $5,000 prize. Read more. . .

From the Executive Director:
Memories of Melvin B. Tolson
Michael L. Gillette

The force of Melvin Tolson’s personality was such that he left others with indelible memories. Those vivid impressions, captured in the voices of oral history more than thirty years ago, shaped my own enduring image of the brilliant teacher and poet. Now Melvin Tolson lives again through Denzel Washington’s powerful new movie, The Great Debaters. Although history from Hollywood inevitably interweaves fact and fiction, this film introduces theater audiences to a remarkable African American whose influence was far greater than his fame.

For Black History Month, Humanities Texas presents three online features on Melvin Tolson. Marshall historian Gail Beil describes the Wiley College debate program and its triumphant 1935 team, upon which the movie was based. Roland C. Hayes, director of the African American Cultural Center at Austin Community College, shares his memories of Tolson as a professor at Langston University. The third feature, excerpts of a 1986 conversation, offers a lively portrait of Tolson in the resonant voice of another former student, the late civil rights leader James Farmer. Read more. . .

New Exhibit Features Hickman Photos

Exline Park, 1955. R. C. Hickman Photographic Archive (DI00918), The Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

We are pleased to announce "Behold the People: R. C. Hickman's Photographs of Black Dallas, 1949–1961," a new traveling exhibit created by the Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin and presented in partnership with Humanities Texas. This exhibit includes fifty-two framed black-and-white photographs documenting life in an African American community in Dallas, Texas. Exhibit bookings are fast being scheduled, so please contact us soon to schedule a display. Read more . . .

NEH Unveils "Picturing America"
The National Endowment for the Humanities invites schools and libraries to apply for a free set of "Picturing America" posters. The "Picturing America" initiative uses art to study the cultural, political, and historical threads woven into our nation’s fabric over time. Read more. . .

Share This Newsletter!
Clicking the "Forward email" link at the bottom of this issue will take you to a web page where you can quickly and easily enter the names and emails of friends and colleagues, and even add a personal note. We hope you'll help us get the word out about the humanities in Texas, and about Humanities Texas!

Upcoming Deadlines
Developing materials or resources focused on teaching Texas history? Humanities Texas is seeking proposals for the Linden Heck Howell Texas History Initiative. Preliminary letters are due February 15, 2008; applications must be postmarked by March 15. Read more. . .

Preliminary letters of intent from Humanities Texas grant applicants are due February 15, 2008; the application deadline is March 15. Read more. . .

Humanities Events Around Texas
Each month, dozens of organizations around the state host a Humanities Texas exhibit or sponsor an exciting program with the help of a grant from our council. See our online calendar to locate an event or program in your community.

Having trouble seeing photographs and graphics? You may need to change the preferences on your email program.

Humanities Texas · 1410 Rio Grande Street · Austin, Texas 78701 · Tel 512 440 1991