Austin, Texas – April 5, 2025
When Fran Harris walks across the stage at the University of Texas this spring to accept the Texas Exes’ highest honor the Distinguished Alumnus Award she won’t just be receiving a plaque. She’ll be closing a circle that began in 1964, when she became the first Black woman to earn an undergraduate degree from UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. At a time when
campus integration was still raw and resistance ran deep, Harris didn’t just endure she excelled, organized, and paved the way for generations who followed. Now, six decades later, her alma mater is finally saying, in the clearest voice possible: We see you. We thank you. You belong.Harris’s journey didn’t stop at graduation. From pioneering roles in broadcast journalism in a segregated South to founding one of Texas’s earliest Black-owned advertising agencies, from advising national nonprofits to mentoring hundreds of young women of color, her life has been a masterclass in turning barriers into bridges. “They told me I didn’t belong at UT,” she recalls, sitting in her sunlit Austin home, shelves lined with photos of students she’s guided. “So I decided to make sure the next girl wouldn’t have to hear those words.”
“Fran didn’t just break doors down she held them open,” says Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, a UT professor and longtime friend. “She showed us that excellence isn’t the exception for Black women it’s the expectation when you’re given a chance.”
The Distinguished Alumnus Award, established in 1958, has recognized titans of industry, Nobel laureates, and governors. But this year’s choice feels especially resonant. In an era of reckoning with institutional history, honoring Harris is more than recognition it’s reparation. It’s UT Austin acknowledging that its story includes both exclusion and courage, and that true pride lies not in erasing the past, but in elevating those who transformed it.
Harris, now 81, remains active. She still volunteers with the Texas Exes’ mentoring program, still writes letters of recommendation, still shows up rain or shine for scholarship fundraisers. “Legacy isn’t what you leave behind,” she says. “It’s what you build while you’re here.”
At a recent campus event, a young Black freshman approached her, eyes wide. “You were the first?” the student asked. Harris smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “And you won’t be the last.”
As the Longhorn Band plays and the Texas sun sets over the Tower this May, Fran Harris’s presence will be more than ceremonial. It will be a quiet reminder that greatness often begins not with applause, but with the courage to walk into a room where no one looks like you and stay.
SEO Anahtar Kelimeler: Fran Harris Texas Exes award, UT Austin distinguished alumna, Black pioneers in Texas education, Austin, legacy of service
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