Mark Van Doren, the noted literary scholar, once remarked, "The college is meaningless without a curriculum, but it is more so when it has one that is meaningless." Many current critics of undergraduate curricula in America assent to the crucial need for programmatic renewal in our colleges and universities. They bemoan the cookie-cutter…

The founding and development of private, primarily church-related, black colleges in Texas from 1865-1954 are reviewed, with focus primarily on 11 institutions that offered college-level work. Comparisons are made to public black colleges of Texas as well as to other black U.S. colleges and universities. Topical areas include: institutional…