County Celebrates 150th Anniversary of Two Historic Institutions

The Fayette County Commissioners Court signed a pair of proclamations last Thursday, July 23, celebrating two important milestones.

Prairie View A&M University and Mount Olive Baptist Church in Armstrong Colony are both celebrating their 150th anniversaries this year.

One is tiny and the other is mighty, but both have played a huge role in the history of the area’s African American community. Armstrong Colony in far west Fayette County was founded in 1874 by recentlyfreed slaves after the Civil War. The families of that community organized Mount Olive Baptist Church two years later, in 1876. That same year, the Texas Legislature estgablished the Alta Vista Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth. At first a teacher’s college, the university later expanded to offer a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate degree. It was renamed Prairie View University and later Prairie View A&M University in 1973 after becoming part of the Texas A&M University System.