Prairie View A and M University - Pantherland Yearbook (Prairie View, TX)

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Life Sketch W. K. BANKS, isos, Agc 17 In a modest farm home in Hartwell. Hart County, Georgia, Willctte Rutherford Banks was bom, August 8, 1881, into a family of thirteen children. He was bom of sturdy, ambitious stock; for his father, J. M. Banks, walked to Atlanta University in 1869, where he entered and remained until he had completed his training. Then he began teaching and continued this occupation for forty years. With such an example before him it is not surprising that young Banks worked at all sorts of jobs; finally overcoming, seeming insurmountable financial difficulties and entering Atlanta University in 1901. He made the eighth grade by examination, remained in attendance at this college eight years and was graduated in 1909. The best center the Atlanta University football team has ever had. Banks, nevertheless, participated in all other extra curricular activities, being at the time the manager and editor of the school's student publication and belonging to the Debating Club, the Young Men’s Christian Association, Literary Society, and the Dramatic Club. 8

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Our Principal W. R. BANKS 7

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Brief History of Prairie View Before the Civil War the site on which Prairie View now stands was a slave plantation owned by Jared Ellison Kirby. After the War this estate was turned into a fashionable school for wealthy white girls. In 1878 the plantation became Alta Vista Agricultural College for Negroes; however, the recently freed Negroes did not welcome a school for farmers and so only six students enrolled, therefore, the venture was temporarily abandoned. By an Act of the State Legislature a school for the training of Negro teachers was established in April 19, 1879. The Spanish name Alta Vista was changed to its English equivalent, Prairie View; and the old slave mansion became an important building of the college and was named Kirby Hall for its original owner. Industrial features were added to the original curriculum and Prairie.View was placed under the same management as the Texas A. M. College, with a principal in absolute charge of the local administrative duties. In 1890 under the Morrill Act Prairie View, as a I md Grant College, became eligible for Federal appropriations; and in 1898 the Legislature appropriated $20,000.00 for the purchase of l,f 00 acres of land. Seven departments made up that first curriculum of the Prairie View Normal and Industrial College. They were English. Mathematics, Pedagogy, Natural Science, Home Arts, Mechanical Arts, and Agriculture. The curriculum grew, and in 1920 the first Bachelor of Science degrees were conferred on Prairie View-graduates. The establishment of the Graduate School in 1938 and the conferring of the first Masters degrees in August, 1939, mark the culmination of curriculum growth. When Prairie View was established there were only three buildings on the campus and the highest enrollment reached in its first decade was one hundred fifty. But in the next ten years the enrollment increased to five hundred students. At present, in the sixty-first year of its history, Prairie View has ninety-seven buildings and an enrollment of 1,278 students. 9