Focused and Fearless: Remembering Shirley Harris, TXST’s first Black graduate

As Texas State honors the 60th anniversary of desegregation, the university is remembering its first Black graduate — the late Shirley Harris — and the leap forward she represented for racial equality on campus.

Not that Harris — who graduated from what was then called Southwest Texas State College on May 26, 1967 — would have made a big deal about her pioneering achievement.

“She was aware that she was the first [African American] to graduate, but that wasn’t her goal,” recalls her brother Dwight Harris, who followed in his sister’s footsteps and graduated from the university in 1970. “Shirley was an all-business person. She came down to get her degree and then went on to do her work.”

There were only a handful of Black students enrolled at Texas State when Harris transferred from San Antonio College in 1965. Two years earlier, a federal judge had ordered the end of the university’s whites-only policy in response to a class-action lawsuit initiated by Dana Jean Smith, an 18-year-old Black student from Austin. 

The judge’s order opened the door for Black students to register for classes. On Feb. 4, 1963, five women — Smith, Helen Jackson (Franks), Georgia Hoodye (Cheatham), Gloria Odoms (Powell), and Mabeleen Washington — enrolled. The university honored the “First Five” by renaming a San Marcos Campus residence hall the First Five Freedom Hall. In the year following Harris’ graduation, two more African Americans graduated from Texas State with education degrees: Smith on Aug. 26, 1967, and Tyree E. Wiseman, on May 29, 1968, according to the Office of the University Registrar.

Dwight says he and Shirley were two of six children in the Harris family. The family moved around frequently because of their father’s job as a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Shirley graduated from Edwards High School in Gonzales in 1961, before the family moved in 1962 to San Marcos for their father’s service as minister at Wesley Chapel AME Church.

“Shirley was the first in our family to get a college degree,” says Dwight Harris, who now lives in Victoria. “She was very smart, and my parents were happy that she was pursuing that education. They always wanted the best for us and for us to be something.”

After graduating, Harris worked as an elementary school teacher in the South San Antonio Independent School District for one year before moving to San Antonio ISD’s Briscoe Elementary School, where she taught for 42 years. She retired in 2011 and passed away seven years later at the age of 73. She never married or had children, her brother says.

The Texas State community continues to celebrate the legacy of Shirley Harris’ achievement. On Sunday, Feb. 26, the Department of Theatre and Dance will present Young, Gifted & Black: A Black History Month Celebration.

Anyae Anasia, a senior musical theatre student, is directing and producing the show, which features over 30 Black student performers. Along with faculty advisor Kaitlin Hopkins, Anasia decided to dedicate the show to Harris.

“I’m sure she endured racial setbacks and may have felt discouraged at times seeing as there were barely a handful of other Black students,” Anasia says. “But nevertheless, she persevered and went on to have a long career in education. This encourages me in my goals as I aim to break barriers as a Black artist and help to bring to life Black stories that have yet to be told. I may be one of the first, if not the first, to tell certain stories, and I know it will be difficult. But hearing about Shirley and other Black trailblazers gives me the strength to keep moving toward my aspirations.”

 

Dwight Harris plans to be one of several Harris family members on hand for the Young, Gifted & Black performance. He’s glad to see his sister’s legacy recognized at Texas State. He is also lobbying for a picture of Shirley Harris to be placed in a prominent location on campus for students to learn about her legacy.

“Shirley was an unassuming person who didn’t particularly relish a lot of attention,” he says. “After she passed away and I thought about how proud my parents would have been, I decided to try to get something done. For future African American students, it would be wonderful for them to walk on campus and see a picture of Shirley, and learn ‘Oh, that’s the first African American to graduate—that’s wonderful.’”

The TXST Newsroom welcomes tips on outstanding alumni and recognition of “firsts” in university history. If you have suggestions, please reach out to Communications Director Yvonne P. Rhodes at yvonne.rhodes@txstate.edu.