Spring Break
Professor cites racism in University's history
By: Melissa Filbin
Issue date: 3/4/05 Section: News
Texas A&M's history, characterized by anger, arrogance and silence, tells us a great deal about American history, said Finnie Coleman, assistant English professor and associate director of the honors program.
Coleman gave a presentation Thursday afternoon titled "Matthew Gaines, Uncle Dan and the Ku Klux Klan: Early Efforts at Negotiating Race and Racism at Texas A&M University" to more than 100 people in Evans Library.
The basis of the presentation was research Coleman conducted into A&M's history from old documents, such as a 1906 yearbook in Cushing Library, and work he did for his book "Strategies of a Black Intellectual." Coleman said historical documents speak more truthfully from unguarded spots in history than other sources.
"I've been crafting a narrative," he said. "It's not flattering, but it has to be constructed and shared in order for old wounds to heal."
Coleman's presentation traced the history of secret societies at A&M, including the Ku Klux Klan. Coleman said the romanticism associated with redeeming the South allowed secret societies to thrive.
The KKK existed at a time when A&M was a military school, Coleman said, and there is no way of knowing how many secret societies there were or how long they existed. The only documented evidence is a picture of students, dressed in KKK robes and masks, from the 1906 yearbook.
Coleman said members of the KKK at A&M held leadership positions in the Ross Volunteers, The Gazoot (an A&M student publication), Literary Societies and The Longhorn (A&M's then-yearbook).
"What we see from the Cadets was not uncommon to schools around the South," Coleman said. "The people who could have made things better in America opted to remain silent; those with malicious intents were often bolstered by their own arrogance and we, for the most part, have often been a very angry, violent society."
Coleman said there are still two secret societies: the True Texans and the Stikas, which are active at A&M.
Coleman gave a presentation Thursday afternoon titled "Matthew Gaines, Uncle Dan and the Ku Klux Klan: Early Efforts at Negotiating Race and Racism at Texas A&M University" to more than 100 people in Evans Library.
The basis of the presentation was research Coleman conducted into A&M's history from old documents, such as a 1906 yearbook in Cushing Library, and work he did for his book "Strategies of a Black Intellectual." Coleman said historical documents speak more truthfully from unguarded spots in history than other sources.
"I've been crafting a narrative," he said. "It's not flattering, but it has to be constructed and shared in order for old wounds to heal."
Coleman's presentation traced the history of secret societies at A&M, including the Ku Klux Klan. Coleman said the romanticism associated with redeeming the South allowed secret societies to thrive.
The KKK existed at a time when A&M was a military school, Coleman said, and there is no way of knowing how many secret societies there were or how long they existed. The only documented evidence is a picture of students, dressed in KKK robes and masks, from the 1906 yearbook.
Coleman said members of the KKK at A&M held leadership positions in the Ross Volunteers, The Gazoot (an A&M student publication), Literary Societies and The Longhorn (A&M's then-yearbook).
"What we see from the Cadets was not uncommon to schools around the South," Coleman said. "The people who could have made things better in America opted to remain silent; those with malicious intents were often bolstered by their own arrogance and we, for the most part, have often been a very angry, violent society."
Coleman said there are still two secret societies: the True Texans and the Stikas, which are active at A&M.
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