news history peeps: dr albert s broussard professor of history august 8 2022 history peeps: dr albert s broussard professor of history dr broussard meeting dr john hope franklin at a speech in the latters honor dr al broussard has witnessed epic changes in his time here at texas a&m university with a ba from stanford university in 1973 and a phd from duke in 1977 dr broussard first arrived at the tamu history department in 1985 his job upon being hired was to create the universitys first african american history courses since then he has continued to teach the same course he created then and has had the satisfaction of seeing this historical subfield develop considerably since the 1980s early on dr broussards career overlapped with the classical phase of the civil rights movement he remembers sit-in protests at the stanford university administration offices during the early 1970s to encourage the admission of a higher percentage of african american candidates he once attended a debate at the university where one speaker argued quite seriously in favor of white supremacy by appealing to phrenology phrenology was a bogus pseudoscience that claimed different races have different personality types and intellectual potential based on the shape of their skull at that time scholarship on african american history was only just beginning to be taken seriously dr broussard reflects when i graduated from duke in 1977 there still wasnt a scholarly biography of martin luther king jr this was only a decade after he had been assassinated now scholars can draw on so many excellent accounts likewise he notes there were few academic histories of slavery those that did exist often excluded accounts by enslaved persons considering them unreliable instead older scholars relied exclusively on sources written by slaveowners or other white southerners that presented a biased quasi-fictional history of slavery fortunately many of these flaws have been rectified in the time since dr broussard started teaching his introductory us history to 1877 class now reads frederick douglasss autobiography–as do many introductory survey courses throughout it all dr broussard has maintained the same high standards and always pushes his students to excel according to him i dont fail many students but i dont give many as either if someone gets an a in one of my courses i dont say they ‘got it i say they ‘earned it because its not easy to get that grade off campus dr broussard is an avid long-distance runner and enjoys competing in local college station races his guilty pleasure is new running shoes and he regularly goes through three pairs each year to what historical figure would dr broussard like to say howdy given the chance he has actually met the man he would have chosen: john hope franklin the author of from slavery to freedom (1947) a pioneering book on the african american experience franklin served as a role model for him throughout his career one of the proudest moments of his life dr broussard says was being asked to give a speech honoring franklin when the latter came to visit texas a&m in the 1980s today a picture of them shaking hands sits prominently on his desk asked what he said to the eminent historian at their meeting dr broussard mused in situations like that you usually let the other guy do the talking by patrick grigsby ‘27 history peeps