Pruitt Studies 'Internal Migrants'
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Bernadette Pruitt |
An article by Bernadette Pruitt, assistant professor of history
at Sam Houston State University, has been nominated for the Urban
Historical Association Article Prize. The award goes to the best
journal article in urban history, without geographic restriction,
with a publication date of 2005.
Pruitt's article, "For the Advancement of the Race: The Great
Migrations to Houston, Texas, 1914-1941," was nominated for the
award by the The Journal of Urban History , which printed
it in May 2005.
Pruitt's article examines the migration, community-building,
class consciousness, and sociopolitical activist efforts of African
American migrants who made their way to Houston from farms, small
towns, and medium-sized cities in eastern Texas and Louisiana
between 1914 and 1941.
"It defines migration to Houston as a form of accommodation-activism,
one of many vehicles used by people of color to gradually achieve
socioeconomic, sociopolitical, spiritual, personal, and racial
autonomy," said Pruitt.
She pointed out that unlike other native-born Louisianans and
Texans who migrated to Chicago, Detroit, New York and California,
the "internal migrants" remained in
the south, and built better lives there for themselves and their
families.
"Relying on themselves and the chain migration networks
of others, these individuals and families decisively abandoned
their birthplaces for better wages, quality schools, decent homes,
improved lifestyles, advanced social equality, and civil rights
in industrializing Houston," she said.
Pruitt also finds parallels between earlier migrations and that
which happened recently as the result of Hurricane Katrina.
"Interestingly, Houston's decision to accept tens of thousands
of Hurricane Katrina victims, along with the victims' determination
to permanently jumpstart their lives in the city, confirms Houston's
significance in the Great Migrations saga of the 20th century," she
said.
"In many instances, Hurricane Katrina casualties relocated
to a city that had already served New Orleans and Louisiana natives
and past migrants--some being relatives, acquaintances, and friends--as
a safe haven, educational mecca, spiritual oasis, and labor vacuum."
Pruitt, who was born in Detroit, earned her bachelor's and master's
degrees from Texas Southern University in 1989 and 1991 and her
doctorate from the University of Houston in 2001. She has taught
history at SHSU since January 1996.
Pruitt has been on leave for the past year doing post-doctoral
study at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of
African American Studies. Terry Bilhartz, who chairs the history
department, said that she plans to return to teach at SHSU in
the 2006 fall semester.
She is also working on a book entitled For the Advancement
of the Race”:
African-American Community Agency, Class Consciousness, Sociopolitical
Activism, and the Great Migrations to Houston, Texas, 1914-1945,
which is scheduled for publication by the Texas
A&M University Press in 2008.
—END—
SHSU Media Contact: Frank Krystyniak
May 31, 2006
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