Guides: Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice-Library Guide and Resources: Launch of the Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice

The Ruth J. Simmons Center for Race and Justice positions itself as a multidisciplinary effort, drawing from an array of existing programs that can, together, facilitate greater understanding of racism and discrimination on the one hand and the need for justice on the other hand to strengthen and sustain civil society. The Center’s activities will include:

Encouraging curricular innovation that helps students better understand how racial and other biases can impact their beliefs, affect their choices, and shape their opportunities in life;
Educational programs for the public on how to combat bias in their communities;
Expert support for government and organizations seeking to understand how they can improve upon their efforts to assure a bias-free, inclusive environment;
Training for individuals in leadership positions who wish to improve upon their leadership for inclusion; and
Support for scholarship and research that adds to knowledge about new areas of injustice that are in need of urgent attention from policymakers and others (such as human trafficking).

The first three projects to be launched. These will be the centerpieces of early work.

The Epa Committee on the Legacy of Slavery and the Impact of Segregation at Prairie View A&M University will conduct a comprehensive study of the impact of slavery and segregation on our campus which is located on the grounds of the former Alta Vista Plantation, owned by Mrs. Helen Marr Kirby, the widow of the late Colonel Jared Ellison Kirby.

The PVAMU HBCU Voting Rights Lab will collect oral histories and important documents and outline case history of the students’ role in demanding voting rights and representation at HBCUs starting with our own campus and expanding to others. This will be a post-civil rights political study of HBCUs as we endeavor to record, archive, and report our own stories.

The Implicit Bias Training and Equity Project (IBTE), with major partners in Houston and Harris County, is the first of our diversity consulting efforts.