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Lifelong Frog
Fort Worth Report: Purple and Black: Three generations of TCU grads recount university’s complex history with race
by Shomial Ahmad
To be young, gifted and Black at TCU in the mid-1960s meant opportunity — and a lot of responsibility. At least that’s how the late Mildred Ann Martin Sims felt, according to recollections by her daughter, LeAnn Sims-Person. Mildred died in 2012.
“We had a lot of pressure on us. Because if we didn’t do well, then we would have ruined it for future generations,” said LeAnn, recounting her mother’s thoughts on being among one of the first groups of incoming Black freshmen to desegregate the main campus at the private university. “She hoped that she could pave the way for other children of color.”
Pave the way she did. A lifelong educator who spent 40 years with Fort Worth ISD, Mildred forged a path that was both personal and political. Three generations of her family graduated from Texas Christian University: Mildred in the late 1960s, daughter LeAnn in the mid-1990s, and grandson, Austin Person in 2024.
Read more at https://fortworthreport.org/2024/07...ecount-universitys-complex-history-with-race/
by Shomial Ahmad
To be young, gifted and Black at TCU in the mid-1960s meant opportunity — and a lot of responsibility. At least that’s how the late Mildred Ann Martin Sims felt, according to recollections by her daughter, LeAnn Sims-Person. Mildred died in 2012.
“We had a lot of pressure on us. Because if we didn’t do well, then we would have ruined it for future generations,” said LeAnn, recounting her mother’s thoughts on being among one of the first groups of incoming Black freshmen to desegregate the main campus at the private university. “She hoped that she could pave the way for other children of color.”
Pave the way she did. A lifelong educator who spent 40 years with Fort Worth ISD, Mildred forged a path that was both personal and political. Three generations of her family graduated from Texas Christian University: Mildred in the late 1960s, daughter LeAnn in the mid-1990s, and grandson, Austin Person in 2024.
Read more at https://fortworthreport.org/2024/07...ecount-universitys-complex-history-with-race/
