Coach L Michelle Made History at TCU at 19 Years Old

It is officially Women’s History Month. However, on the last day of Black History Month my university, Texas Christian University, honored me as a significant history maker in the school’s narrative.

I was 19 when I made history at TCU the first time (there were a couple other firsts), and I didn’t know it. I was just doing what I knew to be right. However, no one had ever asked me about my time at TCU in this way, so the invitation to be a part of the TCU Race & Reconciliation Oral History Project was not only unique but cathartic.

Think about it: nearly 30 years later, someone asked me and others “Are you ok? Tell us your story.” More organizations should do this.

You’d be amazed at what my teenaged self and the other Black students went through in the 90s…. the NINETIES…but we still had the resilience and fortitude to stand up to inequality.

We had to build consensus and community to do it—- and even the faculty and staff were inspired enough to get involved. And it WORKED. This is the story of how TCU finally acknowledged MLK Day as a campus holiday…and a cheerleader lead them.

That cheerleader (and newspaper columnist) was me.

And I’m even more her today.

You can catch my full, unedited conversation with Dr. Amiso George, APR, Fellow PRSA, Dr. Sylviane Greensword and Dr. Frederick Gooding, Jr. on my YouTube channel. The link is in my bio. Just click “Speaking” under playlists.