A Great Performance: Lynn Eusan

By: Omowale Luthuli- Allen   As portrayed in the captivating documentary “Summer of Soul,” the 1960’s was a time when the Negro and the colored identifications for Black people died. In 1966, a talent deserving of wider recognition graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School in San Antonio, Texas. Wilbur Eusan and wife knew about the upside of their elder daughter, Lynn Eusan, while the world awaited her brilliant explosion. This supernova with an Andromeda sized heart decided to enter a public university in Texas.  Lynn’s mom had a confidant and lifelong friend in Houston, Richie Dell Moore of the Silk Stocking, Third Ward – Houston Texas. Ms. Richie Dell Moore was the musical north star of the Moore family, talented daughters Anita and Angela Moore, and saxophonist Bernard Moore. Having a family away from home was a reassuring factor in convincing the Eusans to bless Lynn’s decision to attend the University of Houston during the summer of 1966. Lynn was an accomplished high school journalist at Phyllis Wheatley and the University of Houston had an emerging top notch journalism department. The University of Houston had transitioned from a private to public university in 1963. Ezekiel Cullen, trustee of the school, boasted that no Black person would ever enter the University of Houston. Simultaneously, Black students from East Texas, the inner city Houston, the 44-Acres Homes and Southeastern Louisiana took the fork in the road to UH. Prior to the influx in 1965 and 66, notable was the presence of a handful of star scholarship Black basketball and football players. At the time of Lynn’s entrance, UH had not made any provisions to include Black students into the mainstream of campus life.  This deficiency led to the creation of the Committee on Better Race Relations (COBRR) under the leadership of upper-classman Gene L. Locke. Lynn provided more than ample leadership as Vice President and a movement was born. Clusters of Black students from the 44 Acres Homes, Veronica Dorian Becnel, Mary Bowers, Sherra Aguirre, Michelle Barnes, Wilbur Taylor, Calvin Stephens, Doris Jones, Sue Smith and Jackie Wilson were turnkey ready to […]

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