WWII pilot's gentle spirit beat bigotry
Barnett rose above violence, anger of the segregation era


By HARVEY RICE



The Hermann A. Barnett III exhibit is at the WALLIPP TSU Academy, an HISD charter school on the Texas Southern University campus. The exhibit will move to Ball High School in Galveston early next year. G ALVESTON — After a stint as a fighter pilot, Hermann A. Barnett III returned home to become the first black graduate from a Texas medical school, overcoming Jim Crow laws and hardened racial prejudice.

Barnett endured slights and indignities, including a beating by a Galveston County sheriff's deputy, to graduate from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1953. He went on to become the first black president of the Houston school board and the first black member of the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners.

UTMB is hoping an exhibit about Barnett — making the rounds at Houston-area schools — will inspire students of all races to pursue careers in medicine and science, says Patrice Yarbrough, interim executive director at UTMB's office of strategic research collaborations.



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