Merline Pitre Explained

Birth Date:10 April 1943
Birth Place:Opelousas, Louisiana, U.S.
Alma Mater:Temple University
Thesis Title:Frederick Douglass : a party loyalist, 1870-1895
Thesis Url:https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7419407
Thesis Year:1976

Merline Pitre (born April 10, 1943) is an American historian and educator. She is a professor of history at Texas Southern University and previously served as president of the Texas State Historical Association in 2011 and 2012.

Life and career

Pitre was born on April 10, 1943, in Opelousas, Louisiana, to parents Florence W. Pitre (d. 2014) and Robert Pitre.[1] [2] She grew up in the Louisiana Plaisance community[3] and graduated as valedictorian from Plaisance High School in 1962.[4] [5] She received a B.S. in French from Southern University and an M.A. in French from Atlanta University. She received another M.A. degree and Ph.D. at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1972 and 1976, respectively.[1]

For three years, Pitre was a teacher at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She conducted research at the Library of Congress, National Archives, and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home.[4] In 1981, she was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, which awarded a stipend for independent research.[6]

In 1983, Pitre became the associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences at Texas Southern University, a position she held until 1985.[7] Between 1990 and 1994, as well as between 2000 and 2008, she served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences.[1]

From 2011 to 2012, she served as the president of the Texas State Historical Association.[8]

In 2007 and 2012, she received the Liz Carpenter Best Book on the History of Women Award from the Texas State Historical Association for her books Black Women in Texas History (with Bruce Glasrud) and Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement (with Bruce Glasrud), respectively.[9] In 2014, she was awarded the Lorraine Williams Leadership Award from the Association of Black Women Historians and the President Achievement Award from Texas Southern University.

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Merline Pitre's Biography . The HistoryMakers . 28 February 2022 . en . November 28, 2016.
  2. News: Florence W. Pitre . 28 February 2022 . Daily World . 25 September 2014 . A5.
  3. News: Parish native returns to museum for lecture . 28 February 2022 . Daily World . 7 February 2001 . 4A.
  4. News: Plaisance Woman To Get PhD Degree . 28 February 2022 . Daily World . 20 May 1976 . 15.
  5. News: Merline Pitre Highest Ranking Student in Class . 28 February 2022 . Daily World . 3 June 1962 . 36.
  6. News: Dr. Merline Pitre Receives Fellowship . 28 February 2022 . Daily World . 2 July 1981 . 19.
  7. Web site: About Faculty . 2 March 2022 . Texas Southern University.
  8. Pitre . Merline . Texas and the Master Civil Rights Narrative: A Case Study of Black Females in Houston . The Southwestern Historical Quarterly . 2012 . 116 . 2 . 125–138 . 24388315 . 28 February 2022 . 0038-478X.
  9. Web site: TSHA Liz Carpenter Award for Best Book on the History of Women . 2023-02-18 . www.tshaonline.org.
  10. Reviews for Through Many Dangers, Toils and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas, 1870-1890
  11. Reviews for In Struggle against Jim Crow: Lulu B. White and the NAACP, 1900–1957
  12. Review of Black Women in Texas History: Eight Essays on the Role Black Women Played in the Shaping of the History of the Lone Star State
  13. Review of Born to Serve: A History of Texas Southern University