Huston-Tillotson

Photograph of Burrowes Hall at Samuel Huston College, 1911

This photograph was taken during a visit by Booker T. Washington on September 29, 1911. By this time Lovinggood had served as President for a decade and the college was well established. 

Courtesy of Xavier University of Louisiana

Exhibition Panel: Studies, Classics, Inspiration

This panel showcases some of the justifications offered for the teaching of Latin, including quotations drawn from the work of Reuben Shannon Lovinggood and contemporary curricular materials from Sam Huston.

Why Hic, Haec, Hoc for the Negro? -or- Did Our Northern Friends Make a Mistake?, 1900

Lovinggood wrote this pamphlet in defense of classical education for African Americans. The Latin words “Hic, Haec, Hoc” represent different forms of the English word “this”. Here in the pamphlet’s title they function as a shorthand for the knowledge of grammar, syntax and rigorous memorization characteristic of Latin education.

Credits: Dr. Reuben S. Lovinggood papers. Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections

Why Hic, Haec, Hoc for the Negro? -or- Did Our Northern Friends Make a Mistake?, 1900

Lovinggood’s pamphlet made an impassioned argument against those – primarily white supremacists but also certain Black leaders – who (for their very different reasons) prioritized the merits of “industrial education” for African American students against “liberal education”.

Credits: Dr. Reuben S. Lovinggood papers. Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections

Why Hic, Haec, Hoc for the Negro? -or- Did Our Northern Friends Make a Mistake?, 1900

In this section, Lovinggood contrasts the exclusion of African Americans from prestigious professions with the potential inclusiveness of texts and ideas. The passage culminates in a vision of Classics that is far ahead of its time: he counts Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass together with Homer and Vergil as part of a tradition that is both Black and classical, and that includes both Herodotus and George Washington Williams as part of the same genealogy.

Credits: Dr. Reuben S. Lovinggood papers. Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections

Thesis on “The History of Tillotson College, 1881-1952”

As Lovinggood noted, the teaching of Classics to African Americans elicited various criticisms. In this 1967 thesis by Tillotson alumna and long-serving Austin public school teacher Mabel Williams, we learn about some of those objections, such as the misalignment of Latin and Greek with the practical needs of Black students. 

Courtesy of the Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections

Photograph of C.L Eason, Professor of Latin and Greek at Samuel Huston College

Lovinggood was not the only teacher of Classics at Sam Huston. C.L. Eason also taught Latin, Greek, and modern languages. While we are fortunate to possess the writings of some educators, others like Eason are known today only through references. To see them as part of a community of educators with shared experiences, knowledge, and aims restores a sense of lived reality otherwise lost.

Courtesy of the Austin History Center, Austin Public Library

Photograph of former Samuel Huston College President Joseph Benjamin Randolph

Joseph Benjamin Randolph served as President of Sam Huston between 1920 and 1923. Prior to that he taught a range of subjects at Wiley College, including Latin and Greek. Born in Mississippi and educated in New Orleans, Randolph, like Lovinggood, represented the influx of African American talent from other states into Texan educational institutions.

Courtesy of the Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections

Photograph of former Samuel Huston College President Matthew Simpson Davage

Matthew Simpson Davage served as President of both Sam Huston (1917-20) and the newly combined Huston-Tillotson College (1952-55). Known for his successful leadership at numerous colleges across the south and southwest, Davage began his academic career as a teacher of both mathematics and Latin.

Courtesy of the Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections

List of Samuel Huston College faculty from The Weekly Bulletin, 1906

This list of Sam Huston faculty from 1906 features both R.S. Lovinggood and C.L. Eason, both of whom were teachers of Latin and Greek.

Courtesy of the Huston-Tillotson University, Downs-Jones Library Archives and Special Collections