Who We Are
The Texas Black History Preservation Project is an Austin, Texas-based, diverse non-profit group of writers, historians, and scholars dedicated to documenting the complete history of the African American experience in Texas, spanning almost five centuries. Through print and visual media, the Project seeks to make readily accessible a wide-ranging collection of information related to the experience not only for younger generations of African Americans, but to all Texans and anyone interested in the evolution, progress, and accomplishments of Black Texans. Through our efforts, we hope to build momentum towards the establishment of a permanent repository for all things related to the Black History of Texas.
The project is headed by co-editors-in-chief Roxanne Evans and Michael Hurd.
Roxanne Evans is a graduate of Drake University, and has worked in journalism for nearly three decades and she has more than a decade of work in public service and politics. Roxanne did extensive reporting on Iowa Black History for the Des Moines Register and Tribune in the late 70’s and won an Iowa Associated Press Managing Editors’ First-Place Investigative Reporting award for her work on a series on Blacks in Iowa. In 1983, she became a reporter at the Austin American-Statesman and within five years rose to become a member of the Editorial Board and served as Chief Editorial Writer. In 1988, Roxanne's paper on “The History of Black Catholics in Texas” was placed in the Schomburg Center Collection for Research in Black Culture in New York with excerpts published in the Handbook of Texas. She has also served as a deputy press secretary for Gov. Ann Richards, and continues to write for African American publications such as the Dallas Examiner, African-American News and Issues and has served as Editor-at-Large for Our Texas Magazine. Currently, she is a Communications Specialist with the Austin Independent School District.
Michael Hurd is a native of Texarkana, Texas, but grew up in Houston, served in the U.S. Air Force (including one year in Vietnam), and has a degree in journalism from UT-Austin. He began his journalism career in 1979 at the now-defunct Houston Post, then to the Austin American-Statesman and USA Today – all as a sportswriter, though he has also worked as an assistant city editor for the Statesman, as well as a media coordinator for the UT-Austin development office. He is the author of two books: “Black College Football, 1892-1992,” and “Collie J., Grambling’s Man with the Golden Pen.” (Collie J. Nicholson was the visionary publicist who put Grambling State University on the map as football coach Eddie Robinson built one of the most powerful programs in college football history. Collie was also the first black combat correspondent for the U.S. Marine Corps.). Michael is also a member of the National Football Foundation’s Divisional Honors Court, the committee that selects coaches and players from small colleges to the College Football Hall of Fame. .
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