Coming of age during a time when riots at integrated schools often made headlines, two African-American siblings faced considerable challenges before eventually attending St. Mary's University. But family support based on strong values enabled them to excel in high school, in college, and in the careers that took root while studying in St. Mary's ROTC program.

Less than three miles from St. Mary's campus, Robert E. Brown III (B.B.A. '61) and his younger brother Charles Q. Brown (B.B.A. '63) grew up in a very modest household. Their father had only an eighth grade education but dreamt of sending his sons to college, sometimes working several jobs just to pay tuition. Robert turned down a $300 scholarship in 1958 from a historically black institution to attend St. Mary's.

"Even though private school was more expensive," explains the eldest brother Robert, "going to school here at home and working was more affordable than going to a public school out of town." Growing up, both brothers recall playing in the streets with children of all races, and in a game of tag or touch football, skin color was not an issue. Beyond their neighborhood boundaries, the climate was markedly different. "When we were kids," Robert recalls, "we went to the movies at the Majestic and the Empire Theatre. Of course, we had to enter off College Street, which was behind the main Houston Street entrance. Both Charles and I were going to St. Mary's before that was changed."

The two may have sat in the balcony at the segregated movie theatres during college, but the 1954 Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education allowed Charles to attend the newly integrated Jefferson High School. "I wanted to go to Jefferson High School even before I had the opportunity to," says Charles Brown, who was a fan of the powerful Jefferson Mustang gridiron squads. "That was where I wanted to go, and my parents never really said, ‘You should go to Phillis Wheatley,'" San Antonio's only public black high school and the school Robert attended for four years on the other side of town. "They were just supportive of my desire."

Charles was a clear leader in Jefferson's second integrated graduating class—he played varsity football, belonged to the National Honor Society, and served on the student council. But Charles' and Robert's commitment to education didn't stop there. As they each pursued bachelor of business administration degrees in accounting, the siblings also excelled in uniform.

The Browns found a home in St. Mary's Army ROTC program, a field artillery branch that at the time was required of all non-veterans. Robert was the first African-American in the advanced course of the Army ROTC; the first African-American in the University's Flight Training class; and the first African-American commissioned from St. Mary's ROTC program. As Robert took on so many "firsts," his younger brother took them on as "seconds." Charles was the first African-American to serve as a cadet corps staff officer, and in 1963, he became the second African-American commissioned from St. Mary's ROTC as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Both graduates of the 1960s, the Browns began their military careers serving twice in the Vietnam War.

"What you got in ROTC was camaraderie," says Robert when looking back on how his time at St. Mary's helped him abroad. "There was a sense of duty, a sense that we were willing to do whatever we were called upon to do." The encouragement and values their parents gave them continued at St. Mary's where the brothers were pushed to develop the leadership skills that helped them excel personally and professionally. Both Robert and Charles led 30-year military careers that included commanding artillery battalions in Germany and retiring as colonels.

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Breaking the Color Barrier

When Brown v. Board of Education declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional, African-American students had already been attending the University for several years. In that same decade, St. Mary's Coach Jim Heiser recruited the first African-American athletes to campus who would put Rattler athletics on the map.

"Story has it," recalls Herman A. "Buddy" Meyer Jr. (B.A. '65), former coach, "that Coach Heiser was driving through the streets of Bryan, Texas, when he saw this tall guy sitting on the corner. He was a mammoth of a person – six foot eight and 250-260 pounds."

The young man was Maurice Harris (B.A. '85), who in 1957 not only became one of the first African-American student-athletes at St. Mary's but finished first in rebounding and second in scoring his freshman year. With his teammate Winston Miles (B.A. '62), he would also break the color barrier in the Big State Conference.

Nothing But the Truth

At age 40, Hattie Elam Briscoe (J.D. '56) enrolled in the School of Law, only seven years after women were even allowed to sit on juries. Formerly a cosmetologist and then a teacher at the all-black Phillis Wheatley High School, she excelled in law school, becoming the first African-American School of Law graduate from St. Mary's and later becoming the first African-American female attorney in Bexar County.

Nothing But Net

Kenneth L. Sampson (B.A. '65) became the first Rattler basketball player to score more than 500 points in a season. Named to the Catholic All-American Team in 1961, Sampson finished his St. Mary's career with 1,776 points—the most in school history. He was named to the St. Mary's University Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 1984.