Merline Pitre facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Merline Pitre
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| Born | April 10, 1943 Opelousas, Louisiana, U.S.
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| Alma mater | Temple University |
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| Thesis | Frederick Douglass : a party loyalist, 1870-1895 (1976) |
Merline Pitre, born on April 10, 1943, is an American historian and educator. She is a history professor at Texas Southern University. She also led the Texas State Historical Association as its president from 2011 to 2012.
Early Life and Education
Merline Pitre was born in Opelousas, Louisiana. She grew up in the Plaisance community. In 1962, she graduated as the top student from Plaisance High School. She earned her first degree in French from Southern University. Later, she received a master's degree in French from Atlanta University. She continued her studies at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There, she earned another master's degree in 1972 and a Ph.D. in 1976.
Career and Research
For three years, Dr. Pitre taught at St. Augustine College in Raleigh, North Carolina. She did important research at places like the Library of Congress and the National Archives. She also studied at the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home. In 1981, she received a special award called a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. This award gave her money to do her own research.
In 1983, Dr. Pitre became an associate dean at Texas Southern University. She worked in the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences. She held this role until 1985. Later, she served as the dean of the same college. She was dean from 1990 to 1994, and again from 2000 to 2008.
From 2011 to 2012, she was the president of the Texas State Historical Association. This is a group that studies and shares Texas history.
Awards and Books
Dr. Pitre has received several important awards for her work.
- In 2007, she won the Liz Carpenter Best Book on the History of Women Award. She received it for her book Black Women in Texas History, which she wrote with Bruce Glasrud.
- In 2012, she won the same award again. This time it was for her book Southern Black Women in the Modern Civil Rights Movement, also with Bruce Glasrud.
- In 2014, she received the Lorraine Williams Leadership Award. This award came from the Association of Black Women Historians.
- She also received the President Achievement Award from Texas Southern University in 2014.
