TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2017 | SERVING TEXAS A&M SINCE 1893 | © 2017 STUDENT MEDIA | @THEBATTONLINE
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FACES OF A&M BLACK HISTORY
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(Left to right) Hugh McElroy, ‘71, Stephen Ruth, ‘92 and Tanya Williams, ‘94 are all notable black former students of Texas A&M.
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As Black History Month comes to an end, notable former students reflect on university progress By Mariah Colón @MariahColon18
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n 1963 the first African-Americans enrolled at Texas A&M University. From breaking color barriers to leaving lasting impacts on the university, four former students described their time at Texas A&M and the changes that have come since. Samuel Williams, Class of 1968, was one of the first incoming African-American freshmen to attend A&M and was one of the first African-American players on the football team. Williams said he had to adjust to being at A&M as one of the few African-American students.
“I was one of the first incoming African-American freshmen to come to Texas A&M so the obstacles were just overcoming the adjustment that Texas A&M had to make,” Williams said. “There were a few [African-American students] when we got there but they were in grad school or on some type of special assignment. You hear things, people say things ... I had thick skin, when you’re five or six students out of 89,000 what are you going to do?” Williams said since he has attended school the campus has changed, but still lacks inclusion. “It’s grown significantly, obviously, there still seems to be a total lack of what I call in-
clusion when it comes to minority students,” Williams said. “I’ve been an adviser to three of the presidents so I’ve always told staff … You need to tell your stories more because you’ve got a lot of people of color that are doing a lot of great things for A&M but nobody knows about it.” Hugh T. McElroy Jr., Class of 1971, was involved in football, track and the organization, now known as the MSC Carter G. Woodson Black Awareness Committee. Through a series of events McElroy went from being on the track team and a member of the Corps of Cadets to joining the football team. “I began to get a little traction on my football career and I found out that I was the
first black [player] to start in A&M Football,” McElroy said. “When we were about to play Rice in 1971 … the featured article about the game had a picture of me and a picture of [my veteran grandfather] and the headline was ‘McElroy’s used to big battles.’” McElroy said the most prevalent difference in his experience at A&M was coming to a university with a significantly different demographic than his high school. “The big difference was coming from an all-black high school to A&M — that was completely different,” McElroy said. “You take that and consider that in conjunction FORMER STUDENTS ON PG. 2
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Breakaway Ministries executive director Timothy Ateek (middle) meets with students to discuss Project Shalom.
A&M INVITES AL ROKER TO BIG EVENT
Rachel Grant — THE BATTALION
Shalom Project to focus on relief for refugees Breakaway reps say humanitarian crises demand immediate attention By Abbie Maier @abbsmaier For college students $119,000 can be a daunting amount of money to raise, but Breakaway Ministries’ Shalom Project is setting out to do just that. The Shalom Project has three goals this year, all pointed toward providing relief for the people of Syria and South Sudan. This means supplying the basic
necessities to 70 refugee families forced to resettle. The other two goals are to feed 70 families in South Sudan for six months and to make it possible for 70 South Sudanese women to have their babies safely. Timothy Ateek, the executive director of Breakaway Ministries, said he is passionate about the project’s purpose. “The word ‘shalom’ is the Hebrew word for peace, but it has a much deeper meaning than that. It points to wholeness, completeness, safety, soundness, prosperity, wellbeing. It is the completeness of a person,” Ateek said. “It
was birthed out of a desire to see shalom invade the places in our society where there’s brokenness.” Operations manager of Breakaway Rachel Hunt has been researching both the Syrian and South Sudanese crises for months. Hunt said Breakaway chose to donate to these particular causes because they felt the causes demanded attention. “This year’s project really incorporates what we see as the two greatest humanitarian crises in the world today,” Hunt said. “We were looking at both
By Kevin Roark @Kevin_Roark
Center Tyler Davis scored 13 points in 29 minutes against Alabama Saturday.
— Staff report
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Aggies hit the road for final away game
Cassie Stricker — THE BATTALION
“The Today Show’s” weatherman Al Roker was invited by Texas A&M to attend this year’s annual Big Event in an attempt to set a world record. The invitation was a part of “Rokerthon 3,” a competition in which “The Today Show” will choose college campuses to send Al Roker and The Guinness Book of World Records to visit. A&M hopes to be selected and officially recognized as the world’s largest one day service project. This year more than 20,000 students will participate in local projects throughout the Bryan-College Station community. In an A&M press release computer science senior and Director of Big Event Dalton Harris said he is excited for “Rokerthon 3” and the exposure it could offer A&M. “I’ve grown up a fan of Al and ‘The Today Show’ cast, and getting the opportunity to meet them while showcasing my university and The Big Event would be an absolute dream,” Harris said. “I’m extremely thankful that Al is putting on this program, and would be honored to have The Big Event represent Texas A&M on this incredible platform.”
The Aggies are wrapping up a less than ideal 15-13, 7-9 SEC season as they pay a visit to the Missouri Tigers (7-21, 2-14 SEC) on Tuesday. The men will hope to get a victory as tournament play approaches. “[We’re] going into a tough place — Missouri,” said A&M head coach Billy Kennedy. “It’s strange looking at their record, seeing how they’ve played and how many games they’ve lost at the end. Every game they’ve been competitive. We have to go in there and have the same approach we’ve had the last few games.” A&M notched a 76-73 win over Mizzou earlier this season and is looking to capitalize again in Columbia. Freshman Robert Williams led the Ag-
gies with one of his 10 double-doubles that boasted career-highs in both points and rebounds. The young rookie has quickly become one of the most impressive players in the SEC and the nation, ranking 14th in the country with 73 blocked shots. “It’s nice to have [Williams] in tournament play, scrimmages and practice,” Kennedy said. “He’s got a special talent and he keeps getting better. I just want to be sure he finishes strong, healthy, and we enjoy every minute we have with him.” Alongside Williams is rising star Admon Gilder who carded 20 points in the squads’ last meeting and is in the midst of a hot streak. The sophomore leads the team with 16.2 points per game over the last 12 games. BASKETBALL ON PG. 4
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NATE SILVER TO VISIT A&M Editor-in-chief of Five Thirty Eight blog and data scientist Nate Silver will visit Texas A&M March 7 for an event titled “The Signal and the Noise: An Evening with Nate Silver.” The event is sponsored by MSC Bethancourt and will be held in Rudder Auditorium at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale online through the MSC box office. — Staff report
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