Alumni News by Clara Bush
Breaking barriers:
Dr. James L. Courtney ‘67, DVM ‘70 Continuing a proud tradition of diversity and excellence is at the center of every program at Texas A&M University. To uphold and maintain these traditions depends on the courage and cooperation of each successive generation of students, faculty, staff, and community members. It is this interconnectedness that makes excellence shine through. However, this kind of community doesn’t form overnight, and, often, the most courage and the first spark of excellence comes from those who invoked the first changes to create it. To be the first of anything is no small feat, but to do so amongst the adversity and discrimination that is so intimately tied to our past, and, in some places, our present, is an immense triumph. Often, there are people who stand out as pioneers of this sort. Not least among such people is the first African American to receive a DVM from Texas A&M, Dr. James L. Courtney. Courtney, a native Texan from Palestine, Texas, came to Texas A&M as an undergraduate student during James Earl Rudder’s administration at the university. He and one other student, Leon J. Greene, became the first African American undergraduate students to graduate from Texas A&M in January 1967. After earning his bachelor’s degree in veterinary science that year, Dr. Courtney stayed at the university and went on to pursue his DVM degree from the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVM). In 1970, he became the first African American to graduate from the veterinary school with his DVM. Courtney remained an active alumnus of the university and received an “Outstanding Alumni Award” from the CVM in 1998. Courtney’s career led him into private practice for a short time, and then to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked in the Meat and Poultry Inspection Program until his retirement. Although Courtney was the first African American DVM graduate of
In 1970, James L. Courtney became the first African American to graduate from the veterinary school with his DVM. He received an “Outstanding Alumni Award” from the CVM in 1998. the college, he was preceded by Dr. Edward B. Evans as the first licensed African American veterinarian in Texas. Even so, Courtney remained among a small number of licensed and practicing African American veterinarians in the state, and his commitment to excellence helped to pave the way for more and more students to enroll in Texas A&M University and graduate from the school. In honor of Courtney’s achievements as a pioneering student, and of his accomplishments and dedication to his field, the Texas A&M Black Graduate Student Association created the “James L. Courtney Achievement Award.” Almost two hundred students have been chosen to receive the award since its establishment. Among such changes as integration of the student body during Courtney’s time as a student came several other changes to the university. During the few years surrounding Courtney’s graduation from the undergraduate program at Texas A&M, the university had also approved female applicants for study at the university and elected to make membership in the Corps of Cadets voluntary. These changes opened up even more opportunities for the student body to grow and prosper. Courtney’s generation proved a generation of change and commitment to a new way of thinking among universities and collegiate scholars. Even now, as Texas A&M continues to advance the “One World, One Health”
movement among all disciplines of medicine and academia, we are reaping the benefits of people like Courtney, who took advantage of change and worked unfalteringly to provide for a new and better future until his death on September 28, 2000. For the CVM, these kinds of benefits are integral to the pursuit of excellence and honor in the classroom, in the community, and ultimately in the lives and careers of the students Texas A&M has helped to achieve greatness.
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