Merline Pitre (born 1943) is an American historian and educator. She is a professor of history at

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a public historically black university in Houston, Texas. The university is one of the largest and most comprehensive historically black college or universities in the USA with nearly 10,00 ...

and previously served as president of the

Texas State Historical Association The Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) is a non-profit educational organization, dedicated to documenting the history of Texas. It was founded in Austin, Texas, on March 2, 1897. , TSHA moved their offices from Austin to the University of ...

in 2011 and 2012.

Life and career

Pitre was born in 1943 in

Opelousas :''Opelousas is also a common name of the flathead catfish.'' Opelousas (french: Les Opélousas; Spanish: ''Los Opeluzás'') is a small city and the parish seat of St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States. Interstate 49 and U.S. Route 190 were ...

, Louisiana to parents Florence W. Pitre (d. 2014) and Robert Pitre. She grew up in the Louisiana Plaisance community and graduated as

valedictorian Valedictorian is an academic title for the highest-performing student of a graduating class of an academic institution. The valedictorian is commonly determined by a numerical formula, generally an academic institution's grade point average (GPA ...

from

Plaisance High School Plaisance High School was a school in Plaisance, Louisiana. The school served African Americans, African American students. Plaisance High School was consolidated into Northwest High School (Opelousas, Louisiana), Northwest High School in 1991 ...

in 1962. She received a B.S. in French from Southern University and an M.A. in French from

Atlanta University Clark Atlanta University (CAU or Clark Atlanta) is a private, Methodist, historically black research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Clark Atlanta is the first Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in the Southern United States. Fou ...

. She received another M.A. degree and Ph.D. at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then calle ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in 1972 and 1976, respectively. For three years, Pitre was a teacher at St. Augustine College in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southe ...

. She conducted research at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...

, National Archives, and the Frederick Douglass Memorial Home. In 1981, she was the recipient of a

National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

, which awarded a stipend for independent research. In 1983, Pitre became the associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences at Texas Southern University, a position she held until 1985. Between 1990 and 1994, as well as between 2000 and 2008, she served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences. From 2011 to 2012, she served as the president of the

Bibliography

* * * *Review of ''Born to Serve: A History of Texas Southern University'' *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitre, Merline Living people 1943 births Temple University alumni Southern University alumni Atlanta University alumni Texas Southern University faculty 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians People from Opelousas, Louisiana Historians from Louisiana American university and college faculty deans St. Augustine's University (North Carolina) faculty Women deans (academic) American women historians 21st-century American women writers 20th-century African-American women writers African-American historians Historians of Texas Historians of African Americans 21st-century African-American writers