COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) — Nearly a half-century after African-Americans were admitted to predominantly white Texas A&M University, a black student has finally reached the pinnacle of one of its signature organizations.
Marquis Alexander next school year will become commander of A&M’s Corps of Cadets student military group, a high-profile post that involves establishing the cadets’ dress codes for their military-style uniforms and setting their daily schedule, including physical training that can begin before dawn.
“I’m not going to lie. There is a sense of pride that’s there,” Alexander, 22, said Wednesday, standing in front of the “Corps Arches,” an arched brick wall that marks the entrance to the dormitory area for the 2,100 members of the Aggie Corps of Cadets. “I look at it as encouragement to other people to get out and do whatever they want no matter what their background is.”
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Texas A&M is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Houston where Alexander, the oldest of 10 children in his family and the first to go to college, grew up and attended high school. Despite recruiting efforts by the school, Houston’s inner-city areas typically don’t produce future Texas A&M students, and black students represent less than 4 percent of the 40,000 undergraduate students at the campus.
“A lot of people from that part of town don’t come here,” said Alexander, who already spent a year and a half in the Marine reserves before enrolling at Texas A&M in 2009. “Everyone has their views and I knew what I was coming into when I came here, but it’s been very positive.”
He acknowledges becoming the “face of the university” and he hopes to participate in efforts to encourage people from areas like his at home to make something positive of their lives.
A number of cadets applied for the commander position for the 2012-13 school year, then underwent scrutiny that included a five-minute presentation before an 11-member panel that included school officials, the reigning corps leadership and the Corps commandant, retired Brig. Gen. Joe Martinez.
“This is a young man who has all the right qualities,” Martinez said. “You can see has a level of maturity that’s probably not common among the cadets of that same age.”
Texas A&M opened its doors in 1876. Blacks and women weren’t allowed until 87 years later. The first African-Americans joined the corps in 1964. The first women cadets came a decade later. By contrast, rival University of Texas was racially integrated in 1950.
Albert Broussard, an African-American history professor, said Alexander’s achievement was “an important event but largely symbolic.”
“I don’t want to minimize the importance of this event, but I would not refer to this as a turning point,” he said. “Turning a new page in the long history of this university … would be more appropriate.”
Alexander, who hopes for a career as a military lawyer or intelligence work, said he wasn’t even aware he was the first black cadet commander until someone told him.
“I don’t know why it’s taken so long,” he said. “But I know the corps’ process is that they will always put the best people in the spot. I can honestly say my race didn’t play a factor. I hope it’s because I was legitimately the best person for the job.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.