In 1962, George Ruble Woolfolk, perhaps the foremost Black historian in Texas at the time, published his most well-known work Prairie View: A Study in Public Conscience, 1878–1946, a history of the state’s first institution of higher education for African Americans. Recording the university’s first six decades of existence, Woolfolk’s book also chronicled the many social and educational challenges faced by Black Texans during what was still the Jim Crow Era in Texas and the American South.

Now, historian and scholar Ronald E. Goodwin has edited and annotated Woolfolk’s influential book, making it available and accessible to current scholars and students, as well as those interested in the early history of not only Prairie View A&M University but also of historically Black colleges and universities. Students and scholars in African American studies or the history of education will find Goodwin’s updated edition a valuable resource for study, research, and a more complete understanding of the historical contexts of higher education for people of color.

Published in coordination with the sesquicentennial of Prairie View A&M University, this new edition of Woolfolk’s classic work reintroduces a new generation of scholars and students to a vital and foundational work.