People Who Made Texas State

Introduction

Above: Portrait of the first five Black women to enroll at SWT photographed on May 1, 2024 at the LBJ Student Center. From left to right: Dana Jean Smith, Helen Jackson Franks, Georgia Hoodye Cheatham, Gloria Odoms Powell, and Mabeleen Washington.

Across the campus, buildings, streets, and other spaces are named for people who gave their time and talents, blazed a trail for others, and helped the school evolve from Southwest Texas State Normal School into the Texas State University that we know today.  Faculty, staff, and students are recognized, as well as benefactors and friends of the University.

This digital exhibition is designed to highlight the contributions people made to our campus to provide information about who these people were and how they enriched the campus community.  The exhibition will begin with the names chosen by the Naming Task Force and approved by the Texas State University System Board of Regents in May 2021.

I hope that as we etch these names into our university’s history, we’re reminded of all the courageous trailblazers that came before us and helped shape our institution. They laid a foundation decades ago that we have a privilege and responsibility to build upon today, to move our institution to achieve greater levels of equity and inclusion.

– President Denise Trauth, 2021