休斯敦有色专科学校(1927-1934)
9月14日, 1927, the Houston Public School Board agreed to fund the development of two junior colleges: one for whites and one for African-Americans. 所以, 从休斯顿公立学校董事会借了两美元,800, the Colored Junior College was born in the summer of 1927 under the supervision of the Houston School District. The main provision of the authorization was that the college meet all instructional expenses from tuition fees collected from the students enrolling in the college. 第一个夏天的入学人数是300人. 秋季学期, the enrollment dropped to 88 students because many of the 300 enrolled during the summer semester were teachers who had to return to their jobs once the school year began.
The Colored Junior College was established to provide an opportunity for African-Americans to receive college training. 专科学院发展很快，到1931年, it became a member of the Association of 大学 and Secondary Schools and was approved by the Southern Association of 大学.
休斯顿黑人学院(1934-1947)
1934年夏天, the Houston School Board changed the junior college to a four-year college and the name to Houston College for Negroes. In 1936, sixty-three individuals became members of the first graduating class. The college operated this way until the summer of 1943, when it formally added a graduate program. 1945年春天, the Houston Independent School District severed its relationship with Houston College for Negroes, and thereafter all management of the college was vested in a Separate 校董会.
学院继续在耶茨高中运作, but by 1946 it had grown to an enrollment of approximately 1,400名学生，需要发展空间. 几年前, 在休·罗伊·卡伦的帮助下, 当地的慈善家, the college obtained a 53-acre piece of property in the 第三个病房 area of Houston. 在两位大捐赠者的支持下. T.M. 费尔柴尔德，为了纪念她已故的丈夫. 和夫人. C.A. 杜普里, 以及非裔美国人社区, the college raised enough money to construct its first building on the new campus. 所以, 1946年秋天, the college moved from Jack Yates High School to its first building, 新T.M. 飞兆大厦, which still operates as an active building in the university's facilities inventory.
德克萨斯州立黑人大学(1947-1951)
1946年2月, 赫尔曼·马里恩·斯威特, 一位非裔美国休斯敦邮递员, applied to enroll in the law school at the University of Texas. 因为德州是种族隔离州之一, Sweatt was denied admission and later filed a suit against the University of Texas and the State of Texas with the support of the NAACP. 在回应, believing the separate but equal doctrine would carry the day, 德克萨斯州议会于3月3日通过了参议院第140号法案, 1947, providing for the establishment of a Negro law school in Houston and the creation of a university to surround it. 众议院第788号法案补充了该法案, 批准了2美元,000,000 to purchase a site near Houston to house this new college and support its operation. 德克萨斯州的立法者最初认为Prairie View A&M学院作为新法学院的所在地. 然而, 6月14日, 1947, the decision was made to use the site of Houston College for Negroes, with its new campus at the center of a large and fast growing black population. Thus, a new law school for Negroes of Texas and Texas State University for Negroes was born.
在隔离但平等的理念下, the intention of Senate Bill 140 and House Bill 788 was to create a new university for Negroes in Houston that would become the equivalent of the University of Texas in Austin.
德克萨斯南方大学(1951-至今)
6月1日, 1951, the name of this new university for Negroes was changed from Texas State University for Negroes to 德克萨斯南方大学 after students petitioned the state legislature to remove the phrase "for Negroes."
当大学于1947年9月开学时, 有2个,300名学生, 两所学校, 一个学部，一个学院——法学院, 药学院, 职业科, 以及文理学院. 顺应时代的变化, in 1973, the 63rd Legislature designated 德克萨斯南方大学 as a "special purpose" institution for urban programming. 结果是, four more academic units were added - the 教育学院, 公共事务学院, 传媒学院和周末学院. This designation described what 德克萨斯南方大学 was doing from its inception - embracing diversity.
今天, 德克萨斯南方大学提供学士学位, master's and doctoral degree programs in the following academic colleges and schools: the 文理学院 and 行为科学; the 药学院 and 健康科学; the College of Science and 技术; the 教育学院; the 芭芭拉乔丹-米奇利兰公共事务学院; the 传播学院; the 瑟古德·马歇尔法学院; the 杰西H. 琼斯商学院; the Thomas 弗里曼荣誉学院; the College of Continuing Education and the Graduate School. Other programmatic emphases are found in the Center for 卓越 in Urban Education, 交通运输培训和研究中心, the Center on the Family and a variety of special programs and projects.
目前, 德克萨斯南方大学大约有1名员工,000名教职员工和辅助人员. 超过9个,500名学生, representing ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, 目前在这所大学就读吗.