Texas Originals

Mary Elizabeth Branch

May 20, 1881–July 6, 1944

In 1930, Austin's Tillotson College stood on the brink of collapse. The historically Black school, founded in 1881, had dwindled to just five dilapidated buildings and fewer than seventy students. It took the determination of Mary Elizabeth Branch to save the institution. 

Branch was born in Virginia in 1881. Her parents were formerly enslaved, and their fervent belief in education shaped her career. After completing high school, Branch became an English teacher and school administrator; in the summers she continued her studies, eventually receiving degrees from the University of Chicago.

In 1930, Branch moved to Austin to take charge of Tillotson. She led efforts to clean up the grounds and raised funds to build new buildings. She expanded the library, hired new faculty, and gave scholarships to top students.  

A visitor during those years described the campus as “full of the thrill of something being done.” Branch soon became the only African American female president of an institution accredited by the Southern Association of Schools and Colleges.  

During these years, Branch also worked on the national stage. She helped found the United Negro College Fund and served on the Advisory Board of the National Youth Administration. 

Branch passed away in 1944, but her leadership restored Tillotson College’s vitality and enabled its merger with Samuel Huston College. Today, Huston-Tillotson University enrolls over one thousand students.

For More about Mary Elizabeth Branch

Baylor University’s Texas Collection houses the Huston-Tillotson University Records, which include correspondence and financial documents from Mary Elizabeth Branch’s time as president of Tillotson College.

The Huston-Tillotson University website includes an institutional history that describes the founding of Tillotson College and Samuel Huston College in the nineteenth century and the merger of the two institutions in 1952.

According to Mary Jenness, who profiled Branch in 1936 for the book Twelve Negro Americans, when Branch first arrived at Tillotson in 1930, she had to enter the campus "through the wretched remains of a fence and [proceed] up a gullied and scraggly path through underbrush so thick that a fox could—and did—hide in it." In just a few years’ time under Branch’s leadership, Tillotson gained a library, renovated its living quarters, improved its landscaping, and began attracting a higher caliber of students and, in turn, professors. Under Branch’s administration, the college was admitted to the American Association of Colleges and became a well-regarded educational institution.

In May 2019, Austin’s Mary Elizabeth Branch Park opened in the Mueller neighborhood, where streets and landmarks are named after notable figures in the city’s history.

Selected Bibliography

Brown, Olive D. and Michael R. Heintze. "Branch, Mary Elizabeth."  Handbook of Texas Online.

Brown, Olive D. and Michael R. Heintze. "Mary Branch: Private College Educator." In Black Leaders: Texans for Their Times, edited by Alwyn Barr and Robert A. Calvert. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1981.

Jackson, Andrew Webster. A Sure Foundation: A Sketch of Negro Life in Texas. Houston: A.W. Jackson, 1940.

Jenness, Mary. Twelve Negro Americans. New York: Friendship Press, 1936.

"Mary E. Branch."  The Journal of Negro History  29, no. 3 (1944): 399–400.

Pitre, Merline. "At the Crossroads: Black Texas Women, 1930–1954." In Black Women in Texas History, edited by Bruce Glasrud and Merline Pitre. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008.

Winegarten, Ruthe. Black Texas Women: 150 Years of Trial and Triumph. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995. 

Listen to the audio

Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Branch. Courtesy of Huston-Tillotson University Archive.

Old Huston-Tillotson College Administration Building, date unknown. University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History. Courtesy of the Texas Historical Commission.