Texas HBCU Democracy Schools Conference Series Year 4

Note the photo above while foggy captures a historic moment -- America's first ever state-level legislative caucus devoted to HBCUs, the Texas HBCU Legislative Caucus, declared at the Year 3 Democracy Schools Conference at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas (spring 2024).

Conference theme. The civic power and legacy of the HBCU and Black educational history and practice is the theme of the year four conference. The theme highlights the powerful intellectual tradition at the heart of Black educational history and practice nurtured in Texas’ and America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The citizen tradition from public work philosophy is how conference planners know the intellectual tradition. The tradition needs renewal, promising a new way of working together with an older understanding of democracy in the offing, one with the ability to expand our capacity to work together across divides. “Aspirational citizenship” is how leading Black political theorist Melvin Rogers describes the practice. Democracy as a way life is the thinking that gives birth to it. Here Texas’ HBCUs are uniquely suited to play a leading role. The “HBCU way” of preparing young people to be community-builders, or “citizen professionals,” drawing on the citizen tradition as a model, is worth discussing, debating, and SCALING as a source of hope and civic renewal in a time of civic crisis.

Activities during the conference. *Stakeholders and participants will receive training and then meet with lawmakers at the State Capitol to discuss the unique contributions of Texas HBCUs and the need to adequately fund them in state higher education policy. *Conference organizers are planning a march or vigil (weather permitting) where the conference will walk solemnly to the State Capitol. *Presentations of research and innovative programs by faculty and students. *Roundtable talk of Texas HBCU students. Panel on the civic philosophy of HBCUs and the Black freedom tradition. *Keynote speaker, Friday, Dr. Richard G. Johnson. *Check back for updates.

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*More about the citizen tradition – What is a citizen? Democracy, as a way of life with "We the People" at its core, as its co-creators and architects, is where the citizen tradition starts. This idea offers a view of citizenship that goes far beyond voting, volunteering, and paying taxes, the activities citizens normally perform today in the traditional government-centered approach most Americans are familiar with. Dominant definitions of citizenship today are narrowly legalistic, confining, and static, diminishing our individual and collective capacities. By contrast, “We the people” (the citizen tradition) suggests a different relationship, citizens create society’s governing institutions, not the other way around.

*What do citizens value? Citizenship in “We the people” is informed by values of equality, community building, mutual respect, and the dignity of work. These values reach back to nation’s founding and even further, and they find parallels in local community and work-centered practices of democracy across the world.

*The Black freedom movement. The citizen tradition was central to the Black freedom movement from the beginning. Though the Constitution defined slaves as three fifths of a person, Black people believed in the concept of citizenship from the Constitution’s Preamble, “We the people.” While values like these have been embodied unevenly and imperfectly in American society, in patterns of thought and practice of many different kinds, they find prominence in Black traditions and institutions, including Black educational philosophy and practice.

Host or Publisher Huston-Tillotson University Conference Planning