Simone Manuel Becomes First Black American Female Swimmer To Win Individual Gold Medal

From the Houston Chronicle: Silver and gold finishes cap a week that was about more than swimming

RIO DE JANEIRO – Simone Manuel will return to Sugar Land with four Olympic medals, taking silver in the 400-meter freestyle relay on Night 1 at the Olympic Aquatic Center and silver in the 50-meter freestyle and gold in the 400-meter medley relay Saturday night.

But it’s the fourth – gold in the 100-meter freestyle – that will resonate inside and outside USA Swimming as long as people care about pioneers, pacesetters and the pursuit of excellence.

Manuel, 20, a junior at Stanford University, in the 100 free became the first black woman to win an individual Olympic medal, and that will be the takeaway from this week for most.

While acutely aware of the manner in which she has become a role model, Manuel also is a competitor, and that can’t be overlooked.

“Racing is what I love to do,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love it. This a dream come true. I’m just so happy.” (Read more of David Barron’s story here.)

Related: The significance of Simone Manuel’s swim is clear if you know Jim Crow — Kevin Blackistone, Washington Post


The Unknown Story of “The Black Cyclone,” the Cycling Champion Who Broke the Color Barrier

Taylor-Marshall_1900Major Taylor had to brave more than the competition to become one of the most acclaimed cyclists of the world.

Marshall W. Taylor was just a teenager when he turned professional and began winning races on the world stage, and President Theodore Roosevelt became one of his greatest admirers. But it was not Taylor’s youth that cycling fans first noticed when he edged his wheels to the starting line. Nicknamed “the Black Cyclone,” he would burst to fame as the world champion of his sport almost a decade before the African-American heavyweight Jack Johnson won his world title. And as with Johnson, Taylor’s crossing of the color line was not without complication, especially in the United States, where he often had no choice but to ride ahead of his white competitors to avoid being pulled or jostled from his bicycle at high speeds. (Read more)


Online Interactive Map Charts the Spread of Slavery in the United States

slavery-map-768x596Lincoln Mullen, an assistant professor of history and art history at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, has developed an interactive map that documents the spread of slavery in the United States from 1790 to 1860.

Using U.S. Census data, Dr. Mullen created a map which shows how many slaves and free persons of color there were in each county in the United States at the time. Users can click on any county for the specifics of the particular county. The map is color-coded to show counties with the most dense populations of African Americans.

By going to each subsequent decade following 1790, users can see how slavery spread throughout the South and into new territories and how it gradually ebbed in the northern states. By 1860, Black slaves were more than 90 percent of the total population in several of the counties along the Mississippi River in Mississippi.


Minor sports getting squeezed out at HBCUs

hbcu title9From The Undefeated: When Clark Atlanta University announced this summer that it was suspending its men’s track and field program, alarms were sounded in some corners of the historically black colleges and universities landscape — as well in the community at large.

Here is a school in Atlanta, which hosted the Summer Olympics just 20 years ago. Those games featured gold medal-winning sprinter Michael Johnson and long jumper Carl Lewis.

Was there not sufficient momentum built to sustain a viable track and field program for at least a couple of generations?

Isn’t there an almost unlimited number of potential men in the Atlanta area alone who can run and jump?

As it turns out, the truth is much more complicated, according to commissioners and athletic directors responsible for managing the musical chairs known as HBCU athletics. But what it mainly boils down to are two things: money and Title IX, the federal law that mandates gender equity in college athletics.

“The overarching issue is not HBCU athletic departments dropping sports,” said SWAC commissioner Duer Sharp. “We must first acknowledge that the business model for college athletics has changed, and lower-revenue institutions — not just HBCUs — are fighting to financially withstand some of those changes.” (read more)


TIPHC Bookshelf

The Brownsville RaidPublished 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, “The Brownsville Raid,” by John D. Weaver.

Around midnight on August 13, 1906, shots rang out on the road between Brownsville, Texas, and Fort Brown, the old army garrison. Ten minutes later a young civilian lay dead, and angry residents swarmed the streets, convinced their homes had been terrorized by newly arrived soldiers. Inside Fort Brown, the alarm was sounded. Soldiers leaped from their bunks and grabbed their rifles, thinking they were under attack by hostile townspeople. The soldiers were black; the civilians were white.

Still proclaiming their innocence, 167 black infantrymen of the segregated Twenty-fifth Infantry Regiment were summarily dismissed without honor (or a trial) by President Theodore Roosevelt.

The Brownsville Raid, first published in 1970, is John D. Weaver’s searching study of the flimsy evidence presented in a 1909-1910 court of inquiry. That court had upheld the president’s action and closed the case against the soldiers, not one of whom had ever been found guilty of wrongdoing. The case remained closed until 1971 when, after reading The Brownsville Raid, Congressman Augustus F. Hawkins of Los Angeles introduced a bill to have the Defense Department rectify the injustice.


This Week In Texas Black History, Aug. 14-20

PVAMU-Seal14 — Alta Vista Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas for Colored Youth” was established by the Fifteenth Legislature of Texas on this day in 1876. The school would become Prairie View A&M University, the first state supported College in Texas for African Americans. The Texas Constitution of 1876, in separate articles, established an “Agricultural and Mechanical College” and pledged that “Separate schools shall be provided for the white and colored children, and impartial provisions shall be made for both.”

In 1983, the Texas Legislature proposed a constitutional amendment to restructure the Permanent University Fund to include Prairie View A&M University as a beneficiary of its proceeds. The Permanent University Fund is a perpetual endowment fund originally established in the Constitution of 1876 for the sole benefit of Texas A&M University and the University of Texas. The 1983 amendment also dedicated the University to enhancement as an “institution of the first class” under the governing board of the Texas A&M University System. The constitutional amendment was approved by the voters on November 6, 1984.

brownsville raid13-14 — In 1906, at Fort Brown, in Brownsville, Texas, members of the all-black 25th Infantry regiment supposedly killed a bartender and wounded a policeman, both white, the night after a white woman had reportedly been attacked by black soldiers. The men of the 25th denied participating in any of the incidents. However, despite dubious testimony from Brownsville citizens, President Theodore Roosevelt presumed the mens’ guilt and issued the largest summary dismissal in U.S. Army history as three companies (167 men) were dishonorably discharged. However, in 1972, U.S. Congressman Augustus Hawkins (D-CA) successfully had the discharges reversed to “honorable.”

 

Gene-Upshaw15 — In 1945, Gene Upshaw was born in Robstown, Texas. Upshaw was an All-America lineman at Texas A&I University (now Texas A&M-Kingsville), from 1963-66. He was a first-round draft pick of the Oakland Raiders in 1967 and for his 15-year career played on two Super Bowl winning teams. After his playing career, he became executive director of the National Football League Players’ Association and, in 1987, was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

 

 

pinkston16 – Surgeon Lee Gresham Pinkston was born on this day in 1883 in Forest, Mississippi. He received his M.D. degree at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn. He moved to Terrell, Texas in 1910 to begin private practice and later opened a clinic and drugstore. In 1927, he opened the Pinkston Clinic Hospital, which was the only operating clinic serving the African American community. He was the first of five African American doctors on the staff of Dallas’ St. Paul Hospital, where he remained until his death in 1961. Pinkston High School in Dallas is named in his honor. In 1936, Pinkston helped found the Democratic Progressive Voters League, one of the oldest black political organizations in the state of Texas.

 

 

Victory_grill3_200716 – Austin’s historic Victory Grill was opened on this day in 1945 (Victory over Japan Day) by band manager Johnny Holmes in a converted ice house as a venue for African American servicemen on R&R as well as those returning from World War II. The restaurant and night club became known for its blues and jazz music as well as its food and drink and attracted multi-racial crowds. At its peak, in the 1950s, most of the popular national R&B and jazz acts performed at the Victory Grill as part of the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” including Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Chuck Berry, and Janis Joplin.

 

rafer18 — In 1935, Rafer Johnson was born in Hillsboro, Texas. Johnson was the gold medalist in the decathlon at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. That same year, he received the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award as the nation’s outstanding amateur athlete. In 1984 he lit the torch signaling the opening of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

 

 

 

andrew-jefferson19 – Andrew L. Jefferson, the first black state district judge in Harris County, was born on this day in 1934, in Dallas. Jefferson grew up in Houston, graduating from Jack Yates High School in 1936 and Texas Southern University in 1956. He graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 1959 as the only African American to graduate in his class. As a statesman, Jefferson was active in numerous legal, civil and political organizations, holding the highest leadership offices for the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Houston Lawyers Association. He was admitted to practice law in all courts in the state of Texas as well as the United States district courts for the Southern and Western Districts of Texas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. In 2001, the Andrew L. Jefferson Endowment for Trial Advocacy was established at Texas Southern University’s Thurgood Marshall School of Law. (Listen to Judge Jefferson’s oral history interview for the Houston Public Library here.)


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.