2023 Black Houston(s) Symposium  | Thursday, March 23, 2023 | 6 p.m. CST

On March 23, 2023, as part of the 2023 Black Houston(s) Symposium held at the African American History Research Center (Gregory Campus), history professors Alexander X. Byrd, '90, and W. Caleb McDaniel presented research done as part of their work as co-chairs for the Task Force on Slavery, Segregation, and Racial Injustice. Professor McDaniel (Mary Gibbs Jones Professor of Humanities) presented a paper entitled "Searching for Jack Shelton." Professor Byrd (Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) presented a paper entitled "Sitting with Velma McAfee Williams." Comments followed from professors Bernadette Pruitt (Sam Houston State University) and Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, '85 (Texas Southern University).

Scientia Lecture - November 15, 2022 - 4 p.m. CST

The histories of the city of Houston and of Rice University are both deeply implicated in the history of Jim Crow. Both also have rich histories of Black activism and institution building that sometimes intertwined. Join us for a discussion of the illuminating documents of Black life in the Bayou City compiled in “The Red Book of Houston” (1915) and for a preview of new research from Rice’s Task Force on Slavery, Segregation and Racial Injustice regarding the long overlooked early history of the Rice Institute in Houston’s Fourth Ward.

A Zoom Webinar | Thursday, April 14, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. CST

Please join us to explore the pioneering work of Catherine Clack, and to gain a vital perspective on transformations at the university since the early 1980s.

A Zoom Webinar | Friday, March 11, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. CST

Please join us to explore this essential view of Houston, and critically important way of understanding the early context of the university.

A Zoom Webinar | Wednesday, February 16, 2022 | 6:30 p.m. CST

Please join us for a wide-ranging conversation on the origins and consequence of these disparities and the prospect of present work at the intersection of clinical medicine, public health, science, community action, big data and the humanities to disrupt the status quo.

A Zoom Webinar | Friday, November 5, 2020 | 6 p.m. CST

Please join us for a special webinar with Davarian L. Baldwin, The Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of American Studies at Trinity College on Racial Justice and the Ivory Tower: Higher Education’s Racial Reckoning Reaches Far Beyond Slavery.

Co-sponsored by Rice University Center for African and African American Studies

A Zoom Webinar | October 7, 2021 | 6-7:30 p.m.

Long before there were African American students or faculty at the university, Black staff pioneered what it has meant to be Black at Rice and paved the way for others.

A Zoom Webinar | April 21, 2021 | 6:30 p.m. CDT

Join us for a conversation with members of the Rice community in the wake of the trial and conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd.

A Zoom Webinar | April 14, 2021 | 6:00 p.m. CDT

Join two eminent historians of Houston and Texas for a close look at black life and culture beyond the university (music and sports especially), and a discussion of what this larger world holds and has held for Rice.

A Zoom Webinar | March 31, 2021 | Noon CDT

Join undergraduate and graduate students from The Racial Geography Project research collective to learn about their ongoing work on the entanglement of campus histories with the histories of slavery, segregation, and racial injustice.

A Zoom Webinar | March 24, 2021 | Noon CDT

In 1847, a young woman named Isabella sued for her freedom in a Louisiana court. Isabella had been among the 1,000 or so African captives who had been smuggled into Brazoria County, Texas, from Cuba during the 1830s. Using court testimony, the talk traces Isabella’s journey through the various slave systems of the 19th century, revealing the many imperfect connections that linked Texas plantation society with the wider world.

Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology

A Zoom Webinar | December 1, 2020 | 6-7:30 p.m. CST

Raymond Johnson came to Rice University in 1963 to pursue a Ph.D. in mathematics. After a year working as a graduate assistant and awaiting the outcome of a suit meant to bar him from the university, he enrolled at Rice in 1964. Johnson became one of the university’s first African American students (two black undergraduates, Charles Freeman and Jacqueline McCauley enrolled the next year). 

A Zoom Webinar | November 5, 2020 | 6-7:30 p.m. CST

On Sept. 26, 1962, the Rice Board of Governors (now Board of Trustees) unanimously passed a resolution to desegregate the university, changing course from Rice’s 50–year practice of exclusively admitting white students.

A Zoom Webinar | October 22, 2020 | 6-7:30 p.m.

Moderated by Eden King: Lynette S. Autrey Professor of Psychology and College Magister, Duncan College
Remarks by Catherine Clack: Associate Dean of Undergraduates and Director of Multicultural Affairs

A Zoom Webinar | October 7, 2020 | 6-7:30 p.m.

Moderated by Summar McGee, a member of the Rice University Class of 2020.

A Zoom Webinar | September 21, 2020 | Noon CST

Please join us for a special webinar with Fuentes and White to discuss what other universities can learn from the Rutgers story, particularly in a moment of renewed protest and political struggle over the legacies of slavery and dispossession today.

A Zoom Webinar | July 6, 2020 |  Noon CST

How should universities confront and redress histories of racism on campus? When should monuments go? What lessons can history offer us in the present and for the future? Join us for a dialogue with four leading historians about where universities have been and where they are headed.