Historic Freedmen’s Town Houses Could Become City Landmarks

The cluster of Craftsman bungalows, Queen Anne cottages and other historic homes dating back to the early 20th century on Andrews, Gillette and Ruthven Streets could soon be city landmarks, pending approval from city council after a unanimous vote by the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission Thursday. They were nominated by the Houston Housing Authority. It would mark the first time Houston public housing has won that designation from the commission.

Preservation advocates say the honor would be more than ceremonial and that it underscores an overdue commitment to the area’s history.

The push to link preservation and affordability is part of a growing national conversation. Private developers can take advantage of the federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit, and there are state and local incentives as well. Together, these incentives help encourage builders to renovate older properties and either build or help fund affordable housing. (more)


Jonathan Daniels: The Forgotten Civil Rights Preacher Killed by a Cop in Alabama

jonathan danielsThe murder in cold blood and in broad daylight of a religious leader is horrifying enough. Especially in America, we associate our preachers with words not swords and expect them to be immune from violence. But merely a half-century ago, someone could brazenly kill an Episcopalian seminarian and shoot a Catholic priest without being punished. It happened, in August 1965, in racist Alabama.

In a just world, Jonathan Daniels, born in 1939, would be now completing a long, satisfying career as an Episcopal elder. Instead, he died a 26-year-old civil-rights martyr who sacrificed his life protecting a young black teenager.

Daniels was studying in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Episcopal Theological School—today’s Episcopal Divinity School. In March 1965, Martin Luther King Jr.’s call for moral leadership from clerics brought Daniels to Selma, Alabama. Unlike most, he stayed, realizing, “I could not stand by in benevolent dispassion any longer without compromising everything I know and love and value. The imperative was too clear, the stakes too high, my own identity was called too nakedly into question…. I had been blinded by what I saw here (and elsewhere), and the road to Damascus led, for me, back here.” (more)


NASA dedicates facility to mathematician Katherine Johnson

Naming Event for the Katherine G. Johnson Computational Research FacilityNASA has commemorated the many contributions of retired mathematician Katherine Johnson during a building dedication ceremony on Thursday, May 5, at the space agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The event took place on the 55th anniversary of Alan Shepard’s historic spaceflight aboard Freedom 7 in 1961, which Johnson helped make possible. Johnson, now 97, worked at Langley from 1953 until her retirement in 1986. She began her career as a research mathematician, part of a pool of women hired to perform mathematical calculations by hand for engineers. After quickly distinguishing herself, she was permanently assigned to the branch that calculated the launch windows for the first Project Mercury flights. (more)


HBCU stars shine in Rio Olympics

ATHLETICS-OLY-2016-RIOJeff Henderson fulfilled the ultimate Olympic dream when he won the gold medal in the long jump Aug. 13 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Yet he did much, much more.

Leaping 8.38 meters (27 feet, 6 inches) on his final jump to snatch gold by one centimeter, Henderson, 27, delivered on his promise to win the top prize for his mother, Debra, who has suffered from Alzheimer’s since Henderson was 17 years old.

Henderson, a native of McAlmont, Arkansas, also brought glory to Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) nationwide, and the Southern Intercollegiate Conference.

Henderson, 27, was among nearly two dozen athletes and coaches who represented HBCUs in the 2016 Summer Games. (more)


Civil War plaque could offer historical accuracy

GeorgetownLogo-zw2j5p Kersch has asked Williamson County commissioners to allow a historical plaque on the courthouse grounds that would tackle the often visceral topics of Civil War and slavery. The plaque would note slavery as Texas’ reason to secede from the Union, Williamson County’s vote against that same secession, and how local residents fought as both Union and Confederate soldiers.

The plaque would work as an addendum to the Confederate soldier statue, which has stood near the county court steps since 1916. Erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the statue honors the memory of Confederate soldiers and sailors. (more)

 


TIPHC Bookshelf

No Color Is My kindPublished scholarship on black history in Texas is growing and we’d like to share with you some suggested readings, both current and past, from some of the preeminent history scholars in Texas and beyond. We invite you to take a look at our bookshelf page — including a featured selection — and check back as the list grows. A different selection will be featured each week. We welcome suggestions and reviews. This week, we offer, “No Color Is My Kind, The Life of Eldrewey Stearns and the Integration of Houston” by Thomas R. Cole.

While other southern cities rocked with violence, Houston integrated its public accommodations peacefully. In these pages appear figures such as Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr., Leon Jaworski, and Dan Rather, all of whom— along with Stearns, a Houston civil rights activist —maneuvered and conspired to integrate the city quickly and calmly. Weaving the tragic story of a charismatic and deeply troubled leader into the record of a major historic event, Cole also explores his emotionally charged collaboration with Stearns. Their poignant relationship sheds powerful and healing light on contemporary race relations in America, and especially on issues of power, authority, and mental illness.


This Week In Texas Black History, Aug. 21-27

camp_logan_soldiers23 – Members of the Third Battalion of the 24th Infantry (Buffalo Soldiers) were involved in the Houston Riots on this day in 1917. Also known as the “Camp Logan Mutiny,” men from the all-black unit violently marched on the city of Houston in response to racist treatment from the city’s white citizens, and especially the persistent verbal and physical abuse from Houston policemen. As a result of the two-hour incident, which became known as the only “race riot” in U.S. history in which more whites (15) than blacks (4) were killed, 19 black soldiers were court-martialed and hung. It was the largest court-martial in military history and the largest murder trial in U.S. history.

 

RufusFHardinSchool224 — In 1859, Rufus F. Hardin, educator, was born into slavery in Kaufman County, southeast of Dallas. However, he was driven to become educated and did so, attending several black colleges and earning a degree at Prairie View Normal College. He taught in Brownwood for 38 years, beginning in 1896 at the Brownwood Colored School, the county’s only school for black children. Hardin also became a community leader. In 1934, the school was renamed in his honor.

 

tsu_sit_ins25 – On this date in 1960, seventy Houston lunch counters quietly integrated, the result of an agreement between local businesses to avoid the unrest that had occurred in other U.S. cities during the civil rights movement’s lunch counter sit-in demonstrations. Bob Dundas, vice president of Foley’s department store in downtown Houston, got local downtown merchants to agree to desegregate their lunch counters all simultaneously on the condition that there would be no press coverage of the event. Dundas and John T. Jones, publisher of the Houston Chronicle and president of the Houston Endowment, secured an agreement between local newspapers and radio stations to remain silent on the event for ten days drawing criticism from the national press for censoring the move. Students from Texas Southern University had begun the sit-in movement in Houston in the spring of 1960. (See video, Texas Southern University: Silencing Houston’s Jim Crow; documentary, The Strange Demise of Jim Crow.)

lonestarbook25 – The Lone Star State Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association was formed on this date in 1886 in Galveston. The group came to be because the Texas Medical Association refused admission to 15 African-American medical professionals, including physicians Monroe Alpheus Majors – the first black Texan to graduate from a medical school (Meharry, 1886) and Benjamin Jesse Covington, one of the founders of Houston Negro Hospital (now Riverside General Hospital). After endorsing the group in 1939, the TMA began admitting African-Americans in 1955. Lone Star was the second organization of black medical professionals formed in the U.S., following the Medico-Chirurgical Society of Washington D.C. founded in 1884 as the first African-American medical society.

 

barber_school25Henry Miller Morgan, a barber, was born in Tyler on this day in 1895. Texas began requiring licenses for barbers in the 1920s, but because of segregation there were no schools admitting African Americans. In 1933, Morgan opened the first college for black barbers. The school had only five chairs, but in less than two decades, he had opened branches of his barber college around the country, including Houston, Dallas, New York, Jackson, Mississippi, and Little Rock. At one time, the school reportedly was training a majority of the nation’s African-American barbers. Morgan went on to help found the Texas Association of Tonsorial Artists, a professional barber’s organization, as well as the Democratic Progressive Voters League, one of the oldest African American political organizations in the state. On June 21, 2005, the Texas State Senate honored Morgan with a resolution honoring his life and achievements.

Zelmo_Beaty27Prairie View A&M basketball great Zelmo Beaty died of cancer at age 73 on this day in 2013. A native of Hillister (100 miles northeast of Houston), Beaty played during segregation at all-black Scott High School in Woodville. At PV, Beaty led the Panthers to the 1962 NAIA national championship and was named tournament MVP. He averaged 25 points and 20 rebounds during his collegiate career. Though undersized at 6-9 for a center, Beaty was the third overall pick in the 1962 NBA draft by the St. Louis Hawks and made the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1963 and was a league All-Star in 1966 and 1968 in an era dominated by centers Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell. Beaty jumped to the American Basketball Association and led the Utah Stars to their only championship in 1971. In eight NBA seasons, Beaty averaged 16 points and 11 rebounds a game. In 2014, he was named to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2012, he was named to the NAIA’s 75th Anniversary All-Star Team.


Blog: Ron Goodwin, author, PVAMU history professor

Ron Good goodwinwin’s bi-weekly blog appears exclusively for TIPHC/TBHPP. Goodwin is a San Antonio native and Air Force veteran. Generally, his column will address contemporary issues in the black community and how they relate to black history. He and the TIPHC/TBHPP staff welcome your comments. His latest blog is, “Who speaks for us? Read it

 

 


Submissions Wanted

Historians, scholars, students, lend us your…writings. Help us produce the most comprehensive documentation ever undertaken for the African American experience in Texas. We encourage you to contribute items about people, places, events, issues, politics/legislation, sports, entertainment, religion, etc., as general entries or essays. Our documentation is wide-ranging and diverse, and you may research and write about the subject of your interest or, to start, please consult our list of suggested biographical entries and see submission guidelines. However, all topics must be approved by TIPHC/TBHPP editors before beginning your research/writing.

We welcome your questions or comments via email or telephone – mdhurd@pvamu.edu.