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Pruitt Receives ‘Superior Book Award’

Sept. 23, 2014
SHSU Media Contact: Jennifer Gauntt

 

Associate professor of history Bernadette Pruitt’s debut book has found favorable press among both reviewers and the New York Times.

This month, the book added another feat to its list of achievements—being recognized with the East Texas Historical Association’s “Ottis Lock Superior Book Award.”

“The Other Great Migration: The Movement of African Americans to Houston, 1900-1941” was published by the Texas A&M University Press last year.

Its title, “The Other Great Migration,” refers to the movement of millions of African Americans from the South, not only to the northern industrial cities in search of a better life, but to another, lesser known string of movement within the South—to Houston, to be exact.

“I am ecstatic about winning the 2014 Ottis Lock Superior Book Award with the East Texas Historical Association,” Pruitt said. “One of the finalists for the regional award was a dear friend whose monograph, ‘Enduring Legacy: The M. D. Anderson Foundation and the History of the Texas Medical Center,’ breaks new ground in the study of medical science, social history, American studies, Texas history, and the history of Houston.”

Because the foreword of “Enduring Legacy” was written by President George H.W. Bush and former Secretary of State James A. Baker, Pruitt said she was pleasantly surprised that her book was selected.

“This (that Bush and Baker wrote the foreword) speaks volumes about the work’s importance,” she said. “Therefore, winning the Lock Award is an honor and privilege.”

Her book was selected for its ability to transcend the history of African Americans, urban history and the individual histories of Houston, Texas and the South due to its ability to connect this part of the country with the standard scholarship and narrative on the Great Migrations of the 20th century, according to Pruitt.

“The first monograph written on the topic of Black internal migration within Texas and one of the first that addresses the subject of African-descent internal migration within the South, it attempts to remind readers that Texans and Louisianans played a profound role in the establishment of a Black mainstream political, sociocultural identity that the nation as a whole eventually embraced,” Pruitt said.

“This tantamount event resulted from two intertwining, national population shifts: the dispersal of southern Blacks into the United States Midwest, West Coast, and Northeast; and the movement of rural African Americans to cities,” she said. “It is important that the history profession understands and recognizes the historical sacrifices African-American Texans and Louisianans have made on behalf of community agency and familial determination, racial autonomy, and activism, constructs of what historians today refer to as the long Civil Rights Movement.”

Since its release, the book also has been featured in the New York Times and is considered “a landmark study of African American migration patterns and the making of Houston,” according to Jeffrey Littlejohn, associate professor of history.

The acclaim that the book has received is made all the more special because of its inspiration—the experiences of Pruitt’s family.

“I am reminded of my own family’s sacrifices and must credit the ancestors—my four grandparents, especially—for taking the harrowing trips to Detroit from the South in the first half of the 20th century to escape poverty and institutionalized racism, as well as provide opportunities for their offspring,” Pruitt said. “They probably never would have imagined that their personal life stories would later inspire a granddaughter, as well as propel a history.

“I remind students all the time that they must treasure their ancestors' personal triumphs and tragedies; their sacrifices yesterday without question have made the descendants what they are today,” she said.

The East Texas Historical Association established the Ottis Lock Endowment to honor the lifelong East Texan who served the region as an educator, public official, and business leader.

The “Superior Book Award,” one of three given in Lock’s name, recognizes the best book on East Texas history.

 

 

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